


Half Human

by AllonsyJawn



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alien Biology, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Family Feels, Fluff, No Smut, Pregnancy, alien child
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-07
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2019-05-19 07:22:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 37,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14869265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllonsyJawn/pseuds/AllonsyJawn
Summary: The Doctor and Rose Tyler were not expecting a son, much less a fully-formed sixteen year-old with the mind of a newborn child. Jack Tyler is smart, but he will still need the love of his parents to survive and learn. He has a destiny that was set in motion years ago, and it is up to the three of them to find out what it is, and to save Jack's life. Rose and Ten fluff with a plot.





	1. In Love

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! This story is already written, so chapters should go up fast. Thank you!

Chapter 1

Beginning after the Satan Pit

There is no real night on the TARDIS, but the lights have to go out at some time so that whatever fragile human is on board can have a chance to recharge. The TARDIS did all it could to quiet the echoes of the Doctor's slow, gentle footsteps down one of its dark, winding halls. It knew when he was trying to be sneaky, and it also knew he could use all the help he could get. Rose was a heavy sleeper, but the idea of waking her up like this was too embarrassing to think about.

Before he knew it he was standing outside her room, noiselessly inching the door open to gaze inside. All he could see was the foot of her bed. Her short frame did not even reach the end of the mattress and he sighed in frustration. He hesitantly opened it a bit wider, leaning his head into the room. _Great job, Doctor_ , he thought to himself shamefully. _Every girl wants to wake up to find out some old man is peaking at them in their bedroom._

This wasn't about peaking, he reminded himself, trying to justify his actions. He just had to see her, he just had to make sure she was alright.

A wide grin broke across his face when he caught sight of her tangled mop of hair, folded peacefully over half her face. Her breathing was steady, the slow rise and fall of the blankets stilled his shaking hands. It was only for a moment that he had doubted her today, being faced with the body of Satan himself, if that was what it was. For a fleeting moment he imagined the rocket Rose was in falling into the black hole. To never see her again, to imagine her being crushed into nothing, to not be able to even say goodbye…it had snapped something inside him, something he didn't even know he had left.

He had kept his eyes trained on her since they made it back to the TARDIS, at least as much as he could without her noticing. Every movement she'd made since he'd seen her safe had been mesmerizing. It was not as if he had not watched her before, but never to this extent. He had to see her again tonight, he had to know she was safe. Sure enough, there was Rose Tyler, the shop girl, the Bad Wolf, the only thing in the universe that managed to consistently surprise him at every turn. There she was curled up into a comfy pink bundle, clutching her blankets to herself, sleeping away like the normal, fantastic human she was.

_You've had your look_ , he told himself, _now close the door and go mind your own business_. He bit at his lip, willing his feet to move. He was almost ready to walk out, any second now.

"Have I slept too long again?"

He froze in place, hoping she was talking in her sleep.

Rose rolled to the side, one hand venturing out of the covers to grab her alarm clock from her end stand. She pulled the little clock into the blankets with her for a moment, then sat up suddenly, looking at in shock. "Did I sleep for _thirteen hours_?"

"What?" he asked.

"I went to bed at ten. The clock says eleven. Did I seriously sleep for half a day?" she hopped out of the bed and started pulling at her dresser drawers. "Sorry, you must have been so bored waiting for me."

He shifted uncomfortably at her door. "It… no it hasn't been that long. You've only been asleep an hour or so."

She stopped searching through her tops and looked at him in confusion. "Then why did you come to wake me up?" her eyes went wide. "Is something wrong?"

"No!" he said, backing away a bit. "Sorry to wake you. I'll just—yeah, you get some rest," he said far too quickly as he started out the door.

"Hang on," she called firmly.

He popped his head back in, a mask of perfect innocence "Yes?"

"What were you doing in here then? If you weren't coming to wake me up, what did you want?"

"I…the, uh, the TARDIS kind of jerked to the side…I thought maybe you could have fallen out of bed. I just wanted to check on you to see if you—well not _check_ on, you don't need to be checked on, that's the wrong…word…"

"Was there an end to that sentence?" she smiled at him.

"Well…No, I have no idea where I was going with that. Goodnight," he waved quickly, trying to disappear again.

"Hey!" she called, going after him and catching him in the doorway. "I didn't feel the TARDIS jerk."

"No? Well that's good. Maybe she shielded your room and kept it stable for you." He patted the doorway. "That's my girl. Always on the lookout."

"This is new," she said with a hint of a grin on her face.

"What's new?"

"I've never seen you at a loss for words."

He opened his mouth wide to say something, but nothing came out, so he quickly closed it.

Her smile grew. "Why were you really in here?"

"I was just checking to make sure you were okay after…well after everything."

"Everything meaning…?"

"Rose, you almost died today. That bothers most people."

"Oh," she said, the smile faltering as she turned her back to him trying to run a brush through her tangled mane. "I guess it would. Maybe I'm just getting a bit used to it."

He chuckled once. "You do seem to get into a lot of trouble."

"Oi! Not before you showed up. I had 19 trouble-free, boring years thank you very much."

"It doesn't bother you that you almost fell into a black-hole today?"

"I wasn't the one fighting the devil."

"I hardly fought him," he scoffed. "I shouted at his physical form. You threw the actual mind of Satan out of a rocket. That's a bit more impressive—" he stopped himself, suddenly realizing what he was saying.

She hopped back into bed, setting her brush aside and trying to pull it all together into a bun. "I'm glad you're safe too, Doctor. If you don't mind I'm going try to catch a bit more sleep."

"Oh yes!" he said, a bit too loudly. "Lots to do tomorrow. I'm thinking about swinging by the Olympics! 2012, or 2016, I'm not sure which yet. Both were really, very excellent, wait until you see England's opening ceremony—wow, absolutely amazing. I was about to pop in once before but I landed too close to the speakers, I swear the whole audience heard me. They were nice enough not to complain but—"

"Oh, good. You're back to normal." Rose smiled as she settled back into the covers.

He blushed. "Sorry, right, humans and their sleep. I'll just—"

"Doctor?"

"Hmmm?"

"Would you… stay with me for a while?"

"What? Why?" he asked, hoping she couldn't hear the way his hearts had simultaneously skipped a beat."

She scooted to one side of the bed. "It was tough for me today too, you know. You said you'd come back if I let you go down there, and then I thought you were trapped down there. They were going to leave you, you know. Both of you. They said there was no other way."

"I'm sorry," he said automatically. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"We're okay. Will you stay in here for a while? I just want to be able to know you're safe. Does that make any sense?"

He grinned. "Yeah. No problem, Rose," he said, sinking into the old rocking chair next to her bed.

"Um," she stuttered a bit, scooting to the far side of the bed, "I mean, stay _here_. With me."

"Oh," he said, trying to read her expression. _Don't,_ that nagging voice in his head warned him. He leaned over and laid on top of the covers, laying his hands over his chest innocently where the intense double-rhythm in his chest was beating out a samba. _What are you doing? You are nine hundred years old. Imagine how this would look if someone saw you two like this!_

Rose chuckled a bit at the lost expression on his face, then scooted a bit closer and took one of his hands in hers. "Goodnight, Doctor."

"Goodnight, Rose," he said softly.

She leaned over swiftly and gave him a chaste peck on the lips, then laid back against the pillows and closed her eyes. He sat up, staring at her for several minutes. She was pretending to be asleep, but he knew better. She was controlling her breathing so that it looked even, but it was a façade. His eyes flitted down to her hand, folded delicately around his. This wasn't new, they held hands all the time. Closeness wasn't new. Something about this though, was entirely uncharted territory. The little voice whispered sharply in his head. _Don't you dare! You get out of this bed and get back to the console room. If you do this you could ruin everything! This is Rose Tyler, your best friend, your companion._

He nodded to himself, gently sitting up and trying to force himself to leave her. Her hand was still on his and when he looked back to her she was staring up at him, two pairs of brown eyes meeting wordlessly. She always managed this—somehow she spoke to him with no words. Without a _face_ once in the fifties, she'd still had this spark in her, this indescribable that brought something entirely new to the equation. He gasped when he felt something new, a voice he had heard before, whispering in the back of his mind, but had always ignored.

_This is Rose Tyler. You're best friend. What if it doesn't end badly? What if you tell her everything, and she feels the same way. It will end eventually, she will die before you, but why not grasp at every second?_

Without another word he leaned over and kissed her, grasping at her like the last life preserver on the boat. She grabbed him back tightly; if he had been human it would have hurt. He broke away from her, reminding himself that humans didn't have a respiratory bypass system.

"I love you," he babbled incoherently against the skin of her neck as she clung to him. "Rose, never scare me like that. Never ever let me think you're dead again."

"I promise," she said, leaning back to see his face.

Time crept on in the way it does aboard the TARDIS, but neither would notice that night.

Far away, unknown to the Doctor or his companion, a Professor Carlton Edwards at the University of Colorado was locking his office door. Only minutes before he had received a letter, a terrible letter, from an old friend. The problem was, that friend was dead.

It had been a terrible blow, a few weeks before, to hear that his old colleague Miles Frobisher had disappeared. It was much worse a few days later when he heard the man's body had turned up not one mile from his own home. Miles had lived in Cardiff, and for him to turn up in Colorado—so close to Edward's home—it meant something.

Then, today, a letter had arrived from Cardiff. It was from Miles, but dated several months before the man had died. It simply read:

_We are in trouble, my friend. If this letter has been sent to you by my attorney, it means I was not able to get to you in person to warn you about our imminent danger. You, Professor Edwards, are one of the smartest individuals I've ever met, and I'm proud to call you my equal. However, it seems the thing that has brought us together will be our downfall. Hide yourself— tell no one where you're going, just get out of the University as soon as possible and run._

_Goodbye,_

_Miles Frobisher_

The letter was helpful, or it would have been, but it was too late. Carlton Edwards locked his door, then turned around to face his empty office. Then he screamed.


	2. Something's Wrong In Paradise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something's wrong with Rose...

The TARDIS decided when they woke up that morning, filling the room slowly with a soft, artificial light. The first thing Rose felt was the Doctor's lips leaning against her forehead, his steady breath giving him away. She almost never saw the Doctor sleep. He only needed about eight hours in a week, and he tended to get them out of the way when she was asleep anyway. She heard him mutter something quietly against her hair.

"Are you awake?" She whispered as softly as possible.

He said nothing for a long minute. She turned to face him but his eyes were still shut peacefully. "The… the bag in my right pocket," he mumbled.

"You, uh… you're not wearing pants," she whispered back.

"The…the bag. Do you like jelly babies?" he murmured.

She giggled a bit and he woke with a shock. For a split second he looked at her with a quizzical scrunching of his eyebrows, then they relaxed and his entire face split into a wild grin. "Morning."

"Morning," she said back. Pushing a bit of his hair away from his face.

They laid there quietly, both entirely awake but unwilling to break out of their warm comforter. Rose felt the air around them chilling and the tip of her nose was numb. She pressed her face against his shoulder. "Is it cold? Really cold?"

"Stop it you," the Doctor called out into the room.

Rose felt the temperature rise slowly and stuck her hand out to test the air. "It's normal again. What was that about?"

"It was her," he said, tapping lightly on the TARDIS wall. "She doesn't want us to get out of bed."

"Why?"

He smirked. "She's been rooting for us to…have a morning like this."

"Your box is shipping us? It's a shipping ship?"

He chuckled. "She likes getting her way."

Her eyes dropped for a second. "Has she?"

"Has she what?"

"Gotten her way?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Have you spent nights in bed with people you don't intend to be involved with?"

"Have you?"

"Yes…Well, not for a long time. Ninety year olds, you know. Everyone makes mistakes when they're young."

She ran her fingers along his, not looking him in the eye.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Was this a mistake? Is everything going to change?"

"It doesn't have to. Honestly, except for this part…what don't we do that regular couples would? We live together, we spend all our time together, we have dinner and breakfast and chips."

"There is no regular in this situation," she said. "So… what do we do now?"

He grinned madly, slipping the covers off and jumping up excitedly. "Same thing we've always done! Olympics, yeah?"

"You might want to put on pants."

"Oh!" he said suddenly, grabbing a pillow to cover himself. "Yeah, clothes would be good," he agreed with a wag of his finger as he headed off to his room.

She laughed at him, hopping out of the bed—then she immediately fell to the ground. She sighed, putting her hand against her head as she stood slowly, the room spinning a bit. "Stood up too fast," she muttered to herself. She went on shaky legs to the bathroom, staring at herself in the mirror.

She winced. Her makeup was smudged beyond belief; she should have remembered to take it off the night before, but she'd been a bit busy. She smiled at the thought, glancing back into her bedroom as certain moments flashed through her memory. This was actually real. She'd pinched herself a dozen times this morning, checking to see if she was stuck in some wonderful dream where everything was right with the universe.

Rose gave up on adjusting her appearance and decided to go ahead with a shower. Her hair was full of shampoo when she heard the Doctor knocking at the door.

"Rose?" He called. "What's taking so long? We'll miss the opening ceremony if you take all day in there!"

"It's a time machine," she called back, "we're not going to miss anything."

"It's an expression."

"'We'll miss the opening ceremony' is not an expression."

"Come on," he whined.

"Two minutes," she assured him as she slipped into a towel.

She heard him grumble as he stalked back to the console room. She rummaged around in the medicine cabinet in front of her, she usually kept all her perfume on one shelf, and she was sure the one she wanted was here somewhere…

"There you are," she whispered excitedly, pulling the little yellow bottle out of the cabinet. She'd picked it up in a little shop on Woman Wept, (her Doctor was always pulling her into little shops) but she hadn't dared to use it. Banana-scented perfume; perfect, but obvious. The Doctor loved bananas, and he would know immediately that she bought it with him in mind. Now that they'd crossed that barrier, who cares if he knew. Anyway, it wasn't only for him. It had smelled delicious in the store.

She pulled the bottle open and took a deep whiff—then gasped and coughed, clapping a hand over her mouth. Her vision swam; the stink from the bottle was intense. A shiver ran through her and before she knew it she was on the floor in front of the toilet, getting violently sick. A sharp pain hit her midsection and she cried out, squeezing her nails tightly into her palm. Her other hand grabbed at her stomach, wondering what on Earth she could have ate that would hurt so much. Something budged against her hand.

She gasped, pulling her hand away as she heard the Doctor coming back. "It's been two minutes, Rose," he called cheerfully. "Come on out… I'll come in after you," he warned playfully.

She opened her mouth to answer, but she was having trouble breathing. What was happening? Had she been poisoned? Not now, not just as everything she'd dreamed of was coming true, not with the Doctor outside the door, ready to whisk her away with him all over time and space.

Figures. I find heaven then I die. She thought as her vision grew white. For just a second, she could have sworn she heard something, far, far away, but so close.

"Rose?" The Doctor called, knocking on the door. "Rose, are you okay? Rose, answer me."

She wanted to, really, but the room wouldn't stop turning around her. There was that noise again. What was it? It was so familiar…

Beat-beat. Beat-beat.

She slapped her hand against the tile floor, hoping her could hear it.

"Rose, I'm coming in!" he shouted. She hear him banging his fists against the locked door. "Let me in!" he yelled to the TARDIS. "You have to let me in right now! Don't make me break it! Rose, I'm coming!"

She didn't notice falling over, but she suddenly felt the cold tiles against her cheek. The beating sound got louder, engulfing her mind as she lost consciousness.


	3. The Right Thing For Who?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose is worried, but not as worried as The Doctor.

Rose didn't know where she was. She was sitting somewhere outside, but the grass was...wrong. The blades were tinted red, and when she pressed down on it with her hand it was crisper than grass should be. She looked out into the burnt-orange horizon and saw something big in front of her, just beyond a wide mountain. There was a globe, a big, glass globe. It shone in the sun, glittering so bright she had to shield her eyes. As she focused on it she realized there was something inside it, like it was one big snow globe in the middle of a red summer meadow. A figure appeared on the hill—

There was a pounding in her head as she blinked awake, grunting softly.

"Rose?" she heard the Doctor ask. She felt his hand grasp hers. "Are you awake?"

She was in a soft cotton bed, but it wasn't her own. She glanced around the sterile-white walls around them, occasionally peppered with a kitschy painting. "Are we on the TARDIS?"

"No. Hospital room. A real, proper hospital, if you can believe that. I took you to the med-bay onboard at first, but the sonic gave no readings at all. According to this, you're perfectly healthy." He pulled the offending instrument from his pocket and seemed to get some kind of information from the side of it. Rose rolled her eyes; she was never sure what he could be reading, it didn't even have a screen. She was fairly certain it was just a dramatic effect for his companions.

"What planet? I'm not being treated by cats in nurse uniforms, am I?" she asked with a weak smile.

He smiled back, but it didn't reach his worried eyes. "No cats, promise. We're on Earth, actually. Well, about ten thousand years in your future, I figured there was no use in letting a bunch of 21st century quacks have a go. Still, if you're treating a Raxacoricofalapitourian, you go to Raxacoricofalapitourious. I figured, to treat a human, no better place than Earth."

"What happened?"

"What do you remember?"

"I remember you trying to break down my bathroom door. Oh, you didn't did you? I mean thanks for saving me, but I really liked that door, I'm pretty sure it was solid mahogany."

"You passed out Rose, in the bathroom."

"I know. Why did I do that?"

He leaned into her face conspiratorially. "They won't tell me, they said you're results aren't back yet, but I think I know what they're hiding."

"They're hiding something?"

"If your blood came back with poison in it, they'd never tell me, I'd be the first suspect, so I think they know exactly what's wrong, but don't trust me enough to share it until you make a full recovery."

"Why do you think I was poisoned?"

"Don't panic," he whispered, but I found something strange on the bathroom floor." He pulled the little yellow bottle from his jacket and pointed it at her, gazing intently at into her eyes. "I don't know how someone would have smuggled this bottle on the TARDIS, but I swear Rose, I will find out exactly what's in it and reverse any negative effects it may have had on you."

"Doctor, that's my perfume."

"…What?"

"I bought perfume, on Woman Wept. It's banana-scented."

He squinted at the bottle and cautiously held it to his nose, taking a careful whiff. The smile that split across his face was genuine this time. "Oh! Lovely! Where did you manage to find this?"

"Little shop."

"I love a little shop. Well, anyway, there goes my poison theory. I suppose that's a bit of a relief… but it just means we're back to square one."

"Hang on, what did you mean?"

"What? When?"

"You said if I was poisoned, you would be the number one suspect. Why would they suspect you?"

"Oh," he said, scratching absently at the back of his head, "it's nothing really, but a bit of a cover story."

"What's the cover?"

"Well, I tried telling the rude woman the front desk that you were my friend, but then she told me I couldn't come into the room with you. Can you imagine? I had the psychic paper with me though, so it was easy to convince her I had misspoken and we were…uh… you know."

"We were what?"

"Ah!" a balding man said from the doorway, holding a clipboard. He was a short man, in what Rose presumed was an appropriate doctor's attire for the time period, though to her he looked more like a mime. "Mr. and Mrs. Tyler. Feeling better now, young lady?"

Rose shot the Doctor an amused look. "Yes, Sir. The Doc…My husband was just telling me that you don't know why I passed out."

"That's why I'm here," he said calmly, striding in to stand next to her bed. "No reason to be alarmed, that's the first thing, I always tell my patients not be alarmed. Unless they should be. There are appropriate times to be alarmed, I suppose. An ulcer is a reason to be alarmed, I suppose, but, imagine if you had cancer, and then I told you there was an ulcer to go along with it. Sure, I bet it's a bit distressing, but not nearly as much as the other thing you would have on your mind of course—"

"Do you mind?" The Doctor asked, cutting him off. "Is Rose alright or not?"

"Oh! Oh yes, yes, the results," he stammered a bit. "Well, the good news is that you should be fine, My Dear. The bad news is that you wouldn't have to be here at all if you were following proper precautions. Been skipping out on your pills, have we?"

"I don't take pills. What kind of precautions?"

"Well, what vitamins are you taking?"

"I take an Echinacea sometimes...If I'm feeling sick. I didn't have time to take one in the bathroom, if that's what you're suggesting. It all happened too fast."

"No, no, I mean your prenatal vitamins."

She stared at him. "Prenatal? As in for pregnant women? Why would I be taking those?"

The old man sighed, rolling his eyes. "Great, your one of those women. Listen, I don't know what garbage your last doctor filled your head with, but prenatal vitamins really are essential. You passed out because your body is working in overtime to compensate for the extra life. You would think a woman as far along as you are would have thought this through a little better," he scolded gently.

"I'm not…" she started, waiting for him to realize that she wasn't 'along' by any means. She wasn't pregnant, obviously.

Rose glanced at the Doctor, but he wasn't looking at her eyes. He was staring at her stomach. She glanced there too, her breath catching in her throat. It was hard to see if you didn't know her body as well as she did, but it was clearly there. The bottom of her stomach was extended by a few inches. Unless she had managed to put on five pounds since she left the bathroom, the insanity the man next to her was spouting was beginning to sound plausible.

"I'll tell you what," the man started again, "I'll get you some vitamins, free of charge, just promise you'll try them."

"I…Okay." She said, eyes not straying from her midsection.

"Oh, before I forget," he stopped on his way out the door. He pointed at the Doctor, drawing his attention momentarily away from Rose. "I better get your information too."

"My information." The Time Lord stated blankly. It was hardly a question, and he turned his eyes back to Rose as the man continued to talk.

"Well, I did assume you're the father of your wife's baby, yes? You look human enough, but these intense vitamin deficiencies are more common when the parents are from two separate planets. You see, an Earthling's body, for instance, will naturally make the nutrients its offspring needs to survive. But if the father is from another, similar humanoid species, then the woman's body can't make the nutrients his baby would need, can it? Stowans, for instance, actually make a low level amount of cyanide in their neurochemicals, can you believe it? So if a Stowan gets an Earth girl pregnant, we have to find a way to provide the half-Stowan baby with cyanide without killing the mother. Where are you from?"

The Doctor stared at them both for a moment, and Rose wondered if she was the only one who could see the intense fear behind his eyes. "Stow. Yeah, I'm from Stow. Those vitamins would be a good idea."

"Excellent," the man smiled as he left. The second he was out of earshot the Doctor jumped forward, pulling out his sonic and scanning over her abdomen.

"Doctor?" she started to ask him a question but he cut her off. Suddenly he was inches from her face, whispering very quietly.

"Listen to me, I promise I won't be angry. We were not together, officially, until last night. Except for me, who was the last person you…danced with?"

She raised her eyebrows at him, a slow blush creeping over her face. "There was one boy, Jimmy Stone. I had to leave school because of him, total jerk. Because of it I was too paranoid with Mickey, I was afraid it would all end the same way."

"When was that? Jimmy Stone I mean, when were you with him?"

"Three years ago. He was the only one, except for you."

The Doctor rubbed his hand against the side of his face, his eyes gathering that special kind of crazy he usually reserved for life or death situations. "Impossible," he whispered.

"They're wrong, right?" Rose asked him. "I can't be pregnant. If I was, we wouldn't be able to tell, it was less than a day ago. They seemed to think I was months along already."

"Stay here," the Doctor said simply, jumping up and heading quickly out the door and shutting it behind him.

Rose stared after him, wondering if he was about to catch the doctor and explain that this was all some big mistake. Instead she heard the familiar sound of the TARDIS'S screeching engine, and the blue box itself appeared next to her bed.

The Doctor popped out of the door, but before she could ask him what he was doing he scooped her up, gently untangling her from the machines next to her bed, and carried her away into the TARDIS.

"Oi! I can walk," she protested as he set her down on the seats and started grabbing seemingly random controls. She watched the time rotators whirr for a minute, the Doctor wasn't looking at her. "Doctor? This isn't possible, is it? You said you scanned me in the bathroom. You would have noticed if I was pregnant."

"I scanned you right away, yes, and nothing came up."

"Well then—"

"Then I scanned you again, just now in the hospital," he cut her off. "It confirms everything they said. You were perfectly normal a few hours ago, now it says you're expecting."

She stared at him. "I'm actually pregnant? That's not possible."

"I know," he said as the TARDIS stilled. He ran over and felt at her pulse, then dropped to his knees and started to sonic over her abdomen. His hands were shaking.

"Why couldn't I stay in the hospital?" she asked.

"They couldn't help you. Not worth staying when I could be keeping a much closer eye on the situation."

Rose stared down at the small bump, a ghost of a smile on her lips. She hadn't thought that she and the Doctor could have a family, because of the life they lived, but here was the proof. The movement she'd felt, the heart beat she'd heard, they were all from a baby. Her baby. The Doctor's baby. It happened quite suddenly, whether it was how she would have always reacted or a byproduct of the unusual pregnancy she would never know, but Rose Tyler knew in that moment that she was a mother. And her child might be in danger. Her eyes widened, remembering what the doctor in the hospital had told her. "What about the vitamin thing? He said if two members of a different species had a child, the mother would need supplements. You're a Time Lord, I'm a human—"

"That's the problem. They wouldn't know how to help with this situation. It's impossible. There has never been a cross between a human and a Time Lord before, never once in all of time and space. They would give you drugs for some other child, and it would kill you." The Doctor sighed, pressing a hand against the bump sadly. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, not looking at her anymore. He was speaking directly to her child. "I'm so, so sorry that I forced you into existence, you did nothing wrong. I don't know how far developed you are, but if you can understand me, it will all be over soon."

He hopped up and ran down a corridor, and Rose frowned after him. What did he mean, it would all be over? Was the pregnancy so fast that her baby would be born shortly? He came back with a needle.

Rose stood quickly backing away from him. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Rose," he said sadly, "I wouldn't do anything without your permission, you know that, but you have to listen to me. A human body cannot support a Time Lord. This is an extract from a plant on Gallifrey, I kept samples onboard before the Time War. It's deadly, but only to natives. You wouldn't feel a thing, but whatever this life form has poisoned your body with, it will neutralize it. A few hours ago there was no sign of it, now it shows up on tests, another hour or two he could be born for all we know. There's not much time to think about this."

"If I neutralize the poison, what happens to my baby?"

He sighed, not looking her in the face. "Rose, I'm sorry, this is not a possibility for us. There's never been a study, we had to reason to conduct one. Most Time Lords preferred to avoid humans altogether, let alone have a child with one. This could kill you."

She was silent for a minute. "Could kill me? As in, you don't know for sure?"

"I promised to keep you safe, Rose. I promised, and this is my fault. Please don't gamble with this. Your life means so much, to me, to your mum—"

"And this life doesn't?" she asked, placing a hand protectively over the baby. "What makes one life less important than another? You, who abhors violence and breaks guns, you just want to kill a child—your child? Would you kill your own child?"

He winced, and she could see that she had hit some nerve inside him that she didn't recognize. "If I absolutely have to, to do the right thing, then I will. I've done it before."

"No," she said simply. "You already said it was my decision."

"What do you think this would accomplish, Rose? We can't even be sure it would be born alive. You could be killing yourself for nothing."

"We both live, or neither of us do," she said finally. "What would you do, Doctor? If you were me, could you honestly let one life be extinguished to save our own?"

He sighed, leaning back against the console. "No. I never would."

"It's decided then. If this baby has a chance, we give it everything we can to increase those chances. We'll watch this closely. I'll take whatever vitamins you think would help him. If the moment comes, and we have to decide between me or him…can I trust you to pick him?"

He stared at her for a long moment. "Yes."

"Okay," she nodded, smiling a little again. She walked forward and wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her back, less enthusiastic, but she understood. He was afraid, so afraid that giving in to the relationship they'd been ignoring for so long had come with a deadly consequence. "It's going to be okay," she whispered. "I'll be fine."

"I love you," he murmured into her hair.

"I love you, too," she said kissing his collarbone. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Let's say this all works out. Let's say I live, and the baby lives. Let's say he's normal, and happy, and a brand new form of life the universe has never seen. Would you be happy?"

She felt his smile against her neck. "Oh, yes."

They stayed there together, ignoring the passage of time, holding tightly to the other one until their fears seemed less daunting.

"Well," he said finally, "no Olympics then."

"Why?"

He raised an eyebrow at her, some of the terror she'd seen melting form his face. "Are you kidding? We have no idea when this baby will decide to be born. You don't want to go into labor in the middle of the shot-put throw. No getting into trouble, not until we've worked this out."

"We never try to get into trouble."

"No, but we always manage to don't we? No wandering, no traveling, this was your choice," he said with a wag of his finger.

"Fine. I don't want to be holed up in here though, not if we don't know how long it could take."

He clapped his hands and spun around, adjusting a few levers behind him. "Sounds good to me. How about a trip home, Rose Tyler?"


	4. Nesting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A quick trip home

"It's not bad for him is it?" Rose asked him as they walked through the estate to her flat. "Traveling in the TARDIS, should there be a big 'no babies on board' sign?"

"Nah," he assured her, swinging her hand in his. "Maybe for another pregnancy, but not this one. If anything the time vortex should work as a type of vitamin. Time Lords were exposed to the radiation of the Untempered Schism for their entire gestation."

"This isn't just a Time Lord though, he's part human," she argued.

"Doesn't hurt humans either. There's not a lot we can know about this, Rose. We kind of have to play it by ear. Nothing's going to work the way you think it should for a human."

"How far along am I, then?"

He laughed, shaking his head. "I've just told you, it doesn't work like that. Time is not the boss of your baby. You passed out in the bathroom because of a vitamin deficiency that shouldn't have appeared until months after conception. Then I scanned you and you didn't read as pregnant at all, then the hospital scanned you and you came back as six months along, based on how they reacted. Now you're barely registering two months. It's hopping all around the developmental scale. You might even out, or you might just continue on like this for nine months. Maybe he'll just get bored and decide to be born before tea time."

"Mum?" Rose called as she opened the door to the flat.

There was a clattering from the kitchen, then Jackie Tyler popped her head around the corner. "Rose!" she exclaimed, running forward grabbing her daughter into a tight hug.

"Hi! Sorry we've been so long… actually, have we been gone long?"

"Three months on my end, I don't know about yours. Come here you," she ordered the Doctor, hugging him against his will.

"Hey, hey, let me go," he whined a bit, wiggling away.

"'Bout time you brought her home," she scolded, whacking him gently on the arm before she took Rose's hand and led her into the kitchen. "How are you getting on with it, Rose?"

Rose paled. "Getting on with what?"

"Did you already forget?" she asked skeptically. "Last time I saw you, you were crying about seeing me die in that parallel world. You just got over it?"

"Right, sorry. I've just had a lot on my mind," her eyes shifted to the Doctor automatically, but she hoped her mother hadn't noticed.

Jackie Tyler was not one to miss a scandal. She looked back and forth between them, then sighed and sank into a chair at the table. "Okay, let's hear it. Finally decided to tell me about you two?"

"Mum!" Rose said, blushing a bit.

"Come off it. I knew this was going on, you know. From the first minute you walked through the door with that one, back when he had the other face. 'Companion' my right—"

"We weren't together then, Mum!" She insisted, shifting awkwardly.

"But you are now?"

"Yes," the Doctor said quickly while Rose stuttered a bit. "Yes, Ma'am."

Jackie stood up to her full intimidating five-foot height. She stood toe to toe with the Doctor, staring him right in the eye. For just a moment, The Oncoming Storm, The Destroyer of Worlds, The Mighty Doctor of Gallifrey, was absolutely terrified of this small Earth woman.

She pressed one finger over his right heart. "You plan on staying with my daughter?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"You don't work. How will you get money to support her?"

"I still work for UNIT, technically. I accrued quite a bit of uncashed paychecks, I just didn't have any reason to use them before."

"Do you love her?" she asked, backing away just an inch.

The Doctor smiled. "Oh, yes. Always. As long as she'll have me."

Jackie sized him up a moment. "I'm watching you, Spaceman."

"Noted," he said nervously. "See, Rose? That wasn't so bad," he said turning to look at her.

She was ignoring them completely, her eyes fixed maliciously at the refrigerator. Her knuckles were white against the table, her fingers tightly gripping the side of it. Her tongue came out, gently wetting her bottom lip.

"Rose? Are you alright?" he asked.

She was up in a flash, making a mad dash for the fridge. She tore the door open, searching desperately through the messy shelves. "I'm so hungry!" she hollered, ripping open some tin-foiled monstrosity and shoving it into her mouth.

"Rose!" her mother scolded her. "What's gotten into you?"

Rose muttered something unintelligible through the pile of cold meat, pulling out a bottle of mustard and squirting it in her mouth for dressing.

Jackie glared at the Doctor with menacing eyes. "What's wrong with her?"

"Um, long story really. Well, not a long story, maybe a bit complicated." She raised her fist warningly. "Okay! She's kind of pregnant. I'm sorry, we were going to tell you, we just had to get the whole dating thing out of the way first."

She looked back and forth between the two of them, a light slowly coming over her hard expression. "I'm a grandma? I'm a grandma and you didn't tell me?"

"We just found out."

"Oh, the hell you did. Look at her; cravings gone mad over there, that's what that is. She must be at least five months in."

"She could be, right now, but she won't be in an hour," he tried to explain. "Nothing's normal about this. She's only been pregnant a day, technically."

He suddenly realized Jackie wasn't paying attention to him. She was digging through the fridge, trying to help Rose find food. "No sense in starving the child, that's what my Mum said when I was carrying you, Rose. Here, have some fruit; plenty of vitamins in fruit. Does he actually need vitamins?"

The Doctor shrugged as Rose took a bite of the banana, then she immediately spit it out. "Ugh. That's worse than the perfume."

"You liked bananas a few months ago," Jackie protested.

"Now I don't. They're awful."

"Hey!" the Doctor said, a bit offended. "Are you trying to tell me a child of mine doesn't like bananas? That's insane! You are sure he's mine?"

Rose tossed the offending banana at his ruffled hair, missing by inches. "I don't want rabbit food. Have we got something… meaty?"

"You just ate my roast," Jackie said wistfully, eyeing the empty tinfoil.

"Wrong meat. I want something savory. I want…" she pulled open the freezer and yanked out a box, "This! I want these, and maybe some ice-cream or something too."

"Fish-fingers?" The Doctor winced. "You want fish-fingers and custard? That's disgusting."

It had been a long day. Jackie was finally in bed, after spending hours calling everyone in Britain to tell them Rose was expecting. Several of the women had come to the flat in person, prodding and poking at poor Rose's stomach, each one thinking she was at different point in the pregnancy, depending on what time of day they made it there.

Rose was happy to be rid of everyone and to just be home for a change. She'd popped one of her favorite Disney movie into the DVD player, a well-worn WALLE disc, and now she was laying comfortably across the Doctor's lap on the couch, a warm blanket pulled protectively around her shoulders. Her eyes were getting heavy.

"This movie is incredibly inaccurate, you know," he said accusingly, pointing out yet another flaw. "The last robot on Earth looked nothing like that. They always conveniently leave out what he did to all the other friendly little robots. You realize your sweet little robot is a serial killer, don't you? Just look at those soulless, replaceable eyes."

"Mmhmm," she hummed, listening to his words without trying to decipher them.

"Oh, it's late," he realized suddenly, feeling for the remote. "Sorry, I'll switch this off and we can go to bed."

"Leave it," she whispered, "You slept last night, there's no way you're tired. I can sleep with noise on, just stay with me a while, yeah? This is comfortable."

"Of course," he promised, settling back to watch the absurdly unrealistic depiction of outer space in silence.

It took less than five minutes for Rose to fall deeply asleep. He turned the volume to almost nothing, just to be sure it didn't wake her. She needed more sleep now than ever before, and it wouldn't be on his account that she neglected it.

The Doctor set one hand softly on her abdomen, wondering how much sleep a human baby needed. Gallifreyan babies (which was really a better term, considering they weren't Time Lords yet) usually slept about half of the day during their first few years. He was surprised to feel the roundness of the thing—she was at least seven months along at the moment. That was further than he'd seen her up to this point, and he started to calculate the equation for the increasing intervals when Rose suddenly sat up.

He was surprised; he had not felt her breathing change, and she had been so unwilling to move before. Now she was sitting up on his lap, eyes open but unblinking, turning her head slowly from side to side. They came to rest on him and he grinned, a twinge of pain stabbing at his hearts. Her eyes were wide, a strange tinting of yellow around her pupils as she stared at him passively. This was Rose Tyler's body, but she was not currently in the driver's seat.

"Well, hello there," he said, a small sad smile on his lips. "I'm the Doctor. Welcome to the universe, young one."

The being ignored his words, bringing Rose's hand up to exam the fingers, flexing each one of them carefully.

"Those are fingers," the Doctor said gently. "Your Mum's finger's actually, nothing to worry about. A Time Lord mind, you see, is much more powerful than that of a human under normal circumstances. You're already inside Rose's body, when she fell asleep your mind overpowered hers and saw an opening in the motor controls section, so you just moved right in and took her over for a little while. She's fine, just sleeping while you play around with her body."

Those yellow rimmed eyes looked at him again, and one of her hands came forward to press on the side of his face.

"Yes, I'm real. You're real too, in fact. You'll be a fast learner, I can tell. This happened on Gallifrey, you know, to some of the smarter children. It was something to brag about, being able to overtake your Mother's mind. I suppose the bragging rights are diminished a little considering she's a human."

It took his hand and pressed it against Rose's face for a minute, the examined his fingers. The being placed its hand over her ribcage, a small smile tugging at its lips as it felt her heart beat.

"See? You know that sound, don't you?" The Doctor asked, trying to be as delicate as possible. "Less than a day in the universe and you've already mastered heartbeats. Good on you, young one."

It moved its hand to his chest, feeling a double beat, and looked at him quizzically. "Two hearts," he explained. "You'll probably only have one. That's fine, human are fine, I love humans. They really are fascinating. Now then, your mother needs her sleep, but if you're running her body about the rest will cancel itself out, okay? I need you to let yourself sleep so your Mum can, alright? Can you understand me?"

It stared at him blankly.

"Well that's not your fault. Half-human and conceived a day ago, I suppose you're doing pretty well considering the circumstances." He gently took hold of Rose's shoulders and laid her body back down on his lap. "Do you need something? Is that why you came out to visit?"

The being practiced making a fist a few times, then grabbed softly at the afghan covering the both of them.

"Oh, you're cold? That's it, isn't it? Gallifrey had temperatures running quite a bit higher than this I suppose, a chilly night here must feel like winter to you right now. Well, no worries," he folded the blanket up over the bump on her stomach, "I'll keep you warm all night. Just lay down, close your eyes…that's it now, just like that. You need your rest too, for all we know tomorrow could be your big day."

Rose's eyes fluttered and finally closed. The Doctor rubbed her abdomen, hoping it would put the being living inside to sleep. He sighed, shutting his eyes tightly and allowing himself to think about what he'd been ignoring. This wasn't his first child.

He could remember almost everything about them, but every hundred years or so he would forget some little detail. His daughter, for instance, he could no longer remember her favorite color, and that knowledge haunted him on the rare occasions when he did try to sleep. He could remember the birth of his first child, a boy with light blonde hair and blue eyes. He'd had seven years with that child before it had asked the question. Every Gallifreyan child asked the same question, one day, the question that ended their childhood and sent them off to the academy to become Time Lords.

"Daddy, what's a Dalek?"

They couldn't ignore the threat to the universe forever, the children had to be told about. There was no way to explain pure hatred to a well-raised child. He could hear his son's voice in his ear, it was one of the voices he heard whenever he was about to do something terrible. Why did you let the Daleks have the Satellite Five? Why did you leave Jack Harkness? Daddy, why have you stolen the moment? What do you mean 'no more'?"

How could he do this now? How dare he have another child when he couldn't protect his others? He held Rose a little tighter. This wasn't her fault, she was barely more than a child herself. This baby hadn't asked to exist, the weight of this was on his shoulders alone.

"I'll try," he whispered quietly, wondering if the child could hear or understand him. "I will do everything I can for you. If it comes down to my life or yours, I'll always save you, or your Mum. I can try," he promised.

The light from the TV danced over the warm family. They were little, and unusual, but they were happy.


	5. A Home Birth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He's here!

Amelia McNab ran down the street as fast as she could, but her high heels were not meant for running. The asphalt clicked beneath her feet, echoing dully on the tall brick buildings. She'd been running for so long, her home was only a quarter mile away, now.

Think, think, she begged herself. You are not an animal, you have reason. Think of a way out of this.

She was not fast enough. Amelia McNab ran into one side of an alley—an attempt to make a shortcut—and she was never seen again.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------

When Jackie got up in the morning she saw the Doctor still holding Rose, trying to interest himself in some muted Discovery Channel documentary. He waved silently, pointing at the still-sleeping Rose to warn her to be quiet.

Jackie rolled her eyes, turning the TV volume up and pulling pans down to make breakfast. "Sleep through a war, that one. There's no way a bit of noise will bother her."

He frowned. "She heard me in her room the other night. It woke her up."

"What were you doing in her room," Jackie asked accusatorially.

"Oh, um, I was just… that's not the point."

"If you think you woke Rose up, it's because she wanted you to think so. She must have been awake when you walked in there."

He thought it through for a minute, then raised his eyebrow at the sleeping girl. "Well, you devious little sneak."

"I suspect she'll be hungry when she wakes up. I was thinking eggs, maybe some bacon. 'Course I couldn't eat eggs at all with her. Made me sick all nine months. How is she?"

"She's been asleep for a good nine hours or so. It's good for her but—"

Rose cried out from his lap, cutting him off. "Ah!"

"Rose?" he asked alarmed.

She jumped from the couch, hands clasped over her stomach. "Oh, it—it burns." She let out a scream as they rushed over to her, trying to lower her back to the couch.

"No, no! I don't need to rest, I need…I don't even know," she cried, wringing her hands.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know, it just hurts. I hurt everywhere!"

"Is she in labor?" Jackie asked him.

"Maybe," he started, but Rose shook her head.

"That's not it. I just… it's like I'm hungry but… oh, move!" she pushed past them running for the door.

"Doctor, what's happening?" Jackie asked as he ran out the door after Rose, ignoring her.

Rose's stomach was extended, not to the degree it had been the night before, but enough to slow her down for the Doctor to catch up to her. "You shouldn't be running. Just tell me what you need!"

"The TARDIS! Get me to the TARDIS."

He scooped her up in one swoop, running around the corner to where they had parked the little wooden box. She burst inside, pulling up one of the removable floor boards and digging through the wires.

"You're going to electrocute yourself!" he cried, trying to move her from the wires, but she just pushed him away.

"I know what I'm doing," she insisted.

Jackie made it to the TARDIS, gasping for breath and holding a stitch in her side. "You two are in shape, did you know that? I haven't seen anyone run that fast since I caught Howard the grocer with that fish woman in the Peat District. Just how much running is involved with your travelling?"

"Quite a bit, actually," he said distractedly, wincing every time Rose took hold of a wire. He set a hand comfortingly on the console, hoping his box wouldn't get scared and try to electrocute the three of them.

On the contrary, the TARDIS seemed perfectly calm as Rose dug through her mechanisms, finally pulling out a sleeve of tubing from the floor. She snapped the tube in her hands and a thick, oozing gold liquid dripped from it.

"Rose, be careful! That's excess radiation from the Time Vortex. The tubing is a disposal system so we don't get too powerful of a dose from traveling through it."

Rose ignored him entirely and stuck the end of the tube in her mouth, taking deep drinks of the goop.

"Ew!" Jackie cringed, trying to pull the tube from her daughter's hands. "Sweetheart, you have no idea what's in that junk."

Rose held up her hand, warning her mother to stay back. After a few intense gulps, she finally pulled away, sighing in relief as she laid down on the TARDIS floor. "That's so much better. The pain is gone."

"But what is that goop you were drinking?" Jackie asked disdainfully. "How did you know it was down there?"

"No idea," Rose shrugged. "I was just…like hungry, or something. I knew where to get it, whatever it was."

"Pure time energy," the Doctor explained, carefully repairing the tubing with his sonic. "On Gallifrrey you would get everything you need from the air. I guess the baby decided to improvise, sent you to the TARDIS to collect it for him."

"He sent me? As in, he gave the thought?"

"Sure. It was easy enough for him last night. The good news is you drank a very concentrated dose, it should sustain you through the rest of the ordeal."

Rose was just agreeing with him when she gasped again, grabbing her stomach in pain.

"Then again, what do I know?" the Doctor grumbled at himself, picking her up to carry her back to the flat.

"No! Here! I want to stay here."

"Well thanks, love you too," Jackie snapped. "Is my flat really so bad you'd rather stay in a room where goop comes bubbling out of the floor. What's the design in here anyway? It looks like I'm surrounded by brown cactuses."

"The word is cacti, and it's not. These are coral," the Doctor argued.

"I'm just saying, you couldn't go wrong with a bit of a woman's touch in here. Especially if you expect my daughter to fly around in this thing permanently."

"I'll set my desktop any way I like. You probably wouldn't even like the round things. I loved the round things."

"If anyone's interested," Rose cut in, "I want to stay here because—ow! These are not hunger pains."

They looked at in confusion, but what they saw shocked them into understanding. Rose was lying in the Doctor's arms, eyes wide, and skin positively glowing.

No, I mean really glowing.

"What is that?" Jackie shrieked as the Doctor laid Rose on the ground. "Don't let her go; we have to get her somewhere safe if the baby's coming!"

"No place safer in the universe," he promised, closing the TARDIS doors as Jackie knelt down by Rose's head. He ran back and grabbed the older woman, pulling her away.

"Hey! I want to be with Rose! Rose, Honey, can you hear me?"

"You can't," the Doctor explained. "That's not any glow, that's regeneration energy. We have to stay back, it could burn you, or mess with my genetics. Too much exposure and it could kick-start me into my next face."

"What about her? If it'll burn me, why not her?"

"It would have started already, she would be in pain."

"She said it hurt! We have to stop this!"

"I don't think that's her pain she's feeling," he said ominously.

Rose lay on the floor, gasping softly as she watched her shimmering fingers. She looked over and saw the Doctor standing there with Jackie. She tried to speak but her throat was dry. Her voice came out raspy and sad. "If I don't…If I die…"

"Don't you dare talk like that," he said immediately, but the tears staining his face poked holes in the shelter his confidence provided. "You can do this Rose Tyler, you're fantastic. Just hold on a bit longer."

Rose let out a final gasp, and suddenly a bright yellow light filled the room, shining from her face and hands. It was magnificent and the heat was almost unbearable. The light danced in the air, but instead of dispersing, it swung around the room and came to hit the floor next to Rose, filling the space with a formless blob. As the light congealed it took on shapes, a leg here, an arm there, and worked its way in a circular fashion until there was a fully-formed adult body lying next to her, concealed by the yellow energy.

"Rose!" The Doctor yelled, using one hand to shield himself from the light.

Very suddenly, the glow was gone from Rose's body, along with the bump that had been on her stomach. What was left of the energy swirled through the room, always coming to rest in the figure on the floor. Rose took shaky breaths and sat up slowly, watching the last traces of the light bounce along into the figure. Finally, only the body next to her glowed, and with a sudden pop the light disappeared, leaving a boy in its wake.

Rose stared at him in shock for half a minute, taking in every feature of this being she'd created. He was tall, five-foot seven at the least, and he looked to be about sixteen physically. He had wild brown hair that hung down intrusively onto his angular face. Rose laid a hand on the boy's face, brushing some of his hair away gingerly.

His eyes shot open, and he went immediately from sleeping to panicked. The boy shot up into a sitting position, grabbing at his arms, his face, his legs, making unintelligible sounds with his mouth, as though he couldn't find words that he wished he had.

"It's okay," Rose said immediately, pulling his head to her shoulder, trying to calm him down. "It's okay, Sweetheart, I'm here. You don't have to be afraid, never ever. Everything is alright."

The boy made a sharp grunt and pulled away from her embrace, pressing the heels of his palms against the side of his head. "Ah!" he cried. "Ah—ah!" he fell backward, screaming, his hands guarding his temples.

The Doctor ran over, leaning over the boy and wrestling his hands away from his face to replace them with his own.

"What's happening?" Rose shrieked. "He's in pain! What's happening? What are you doing?"

"He's too human, more human than I thought. But just as smart as a Time Lord. Those things don't go together. You can't have a Time Lord mind inside a human brain, it'll burn up and die in under a minute."

"He's dying?" she sobbed, grabbing tightly at her son's hand.

"I've just got to—okay hold still," the Doctor said, pinning back the terrified boy's arms. He laid his own palms against the boy's temples, closing his eyes and concentrating very hard on something. After ten seconds the boy stopped screaming, his arms and legs going limp beneath his parents.

"No!" Rose screamed, a scream that chilled everyone on the TARDIS to their bones. "No, he can't be—"

"He's not dead," the Doctor said, quickly, pulling Rose into a tight hug. "He's okay, he's only asleep, I thought it would be easier to get him back to your Mother's without his arms flying everywhere."

"But—but you said his mind would kill him."

"It would, that's why I've moved it."

"His whole mind? You moved it?"

"No, not the whole thing. Just some of the Time Lord part of it. Imagine…a wall, like, a bid dam inside his head. I took the stuff that was too much for him to handle and shoved it behind a barrier where he can't reach it."

"So he's safe?" she asked, laying a hand alongside the sleeping boy's face. "Our son is safe?"

"Not exactly. The wall… it's a quick fix. We'll have to find something more permanent."

"But he's alive," Rose sobbed, ignoring him as she stroked the boy's cheek "Our son is alive, and I'm alive."

The Doctor grinned. "Oh, yes. So alive."

"He's beautiful," Jackie whispered from the corner. Rose smiled at her mother, surmised to hear such gentle words. Jackie quickly composed herself. "But I guess you couldn't have made him any younger? People are going to think he's mine! You're way too young to have one that age. Bit big for a newborn."

Rose rolled her eyes as the Doctor took off his overcoat and wrapped it around the boy, lifting him gingerly in his arms.

"I think he's perfect," Rose said, slipping on hand around the Doctor's arm as they walked back to the flat she'd called home before her life had changed, all those months ago.


	6. Jack Tyler

They dressed the boy in a warm robe (pulling out a couple of wayward oranges) and the Doctor gently set him down in Rose's bed. She was beside him in a second, hauling a heavy comforter over him. The Doctor pulled his stethoscope from his deep pocket.

"What's his name?" Jackie asked from the doorway.

Rose shrugged noncommittally. "Not sure yet. I don't care, as long as he's alive."

"He is," the Doctor promised, listening closely to both sides of the boy's chest. "One heart, but it's strong. Blood pressure is a bit high, but I suppose if you had just been born on a metal floor and had the boss of all headaches welcome you to the world, you'd be a bit jittery too."

"He looks like you," Rose said, and the Doctor smiled at her.

"Yeah, a little. He's got my last form's ears though, poor devil."

"How are you, though?" Jackie asked, pressing a hand against Rose's face. "Any pain? Can I get you something to eat?"

"I'm fine," Rose insisted, swatting her hands away, barely paying attention to her mother. "Perfectly normal. What do you think he'll eat when he wakes up? You eat human food, right Doctor? Yes; yeah I've seen you eat a hundred times, what am I thinking—plus being half-human means Earth food should taste good, I suspect."

"Hey," the Doctor said, catching her shoulders, "calm down. You've just done something amazing. Let us help now, okay? Why don't you go rest a bit and—?"

"I don't need rest," she said, softly shrugging him off, "and I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying in here until he wakes up."

"I don't think you'll have to wait long," Jackie muttered, tapping her on the shoulder.

The boy's head moved to the side a bit, his eyebrows knitting together worriedly. He opened his eyes slowly, catching sight of the strange creatures around them. He gasped and backed away quickly drawing his knees up to his chest as he cowered against the headboard. He was going to cover his face with his hands, but Rose held tight to one of them. He blinked at her, using his free hand to rub his eyes.

"Shh," she said quickly, setting her other hand on his shoulder, "it's okay. You're safe, you're okay."

"Hello, there," the Doctor grinned, leaning in just a little so he didn't scare him, "we met last night. Do you remember me?"

He looked at the strange man blankly, trying to hide with his free hand.

"What's wrong with him?" Jackie asked. "Can't he hear us?"

"He hears us fine," the Doctor said, "but I doubt he understands anything. He's a newborn, have you ever seen a happy newborn? Nah, one minute you're happy and warm and protected and then the next you're tossed out into the world. No explanation, no direction, surrounded by creatures you don't know, and in this case with way too much empty brain space. It must be terrifying."

Rose took the boy's face in her hands and he stared at her, looking her over suspiciously. "You're safe," she repeated, sweeping his hair back. "Look, it's me, do you know me? Huh?"

He stared at her for a long minute as recognition slid across his features, then suddenly he was clinging to her, hiding his face in her neck in a tight hug. "There we go," she said, petting his hair, "don't be scared."

"Mothers," the Doctor said happily, "most powerful beings in the universe."

They sat the boy down at the kitchen table; Rose was staying close by his side as he was still eyeing the other two fearfully. Something was different now, though—he didn't look scared as much as he looked…overwhelmed. His head whipped wildly back and forth, watching staring down everything in the room from the table to the fridge to his own thumb.

"He's bound to be hungry," Jackie said rummaging through the cupboards.

"Why do you try to feed everyone who walks in the door, Mum?" Rose rolled her eyes. "There are other ways to take care of people than stuffing their faces."

"Faces," the boy repeated.

They all stared at him in shock. He was simply sitting in his chair, looking in fascination at the ceiling tiles.

"Did he just speak?" Jackie asked.

"I think so," Rose said.

"Think so," he repeated.

"Well, that's interesting," the Doctor said, watching the boy carefully. "Not even Time Lords started repetition this early. Of course, they weren't born fully formed either."

"But, why's he doing it?" Rose asked.

"Why's he doing it?" the boy said flatly.

"He's only repeating you," Jackie said to her daughter.

"Well, yeah, he knows her. Most intelligent beings can recognize their mother. This is learning, he copies voices until he can use language himself. Maybe, if he gets to trust me, he might mimic me, too," the Doctor leaned in patting the boy on the arm.

The boy looked at him, blinking curiously, then leaned in as he had, copying his facial expression.

Jackie set a plate in front of him, a bunch of different sandwich meats piled on it. "Go on then, take a bite; see what you like."

He looked at Rose, tilting his head to one side. She picked a bit of salami off the tray, popping it into her own mouth. He copied her movements, pushing a piece of the meat into his mouth. His eyes went wide and he grinned, repeating the action with the other items, suddenly acting as though he had been starving.

"See? Food is the answer sometimes," Jackie teased as she cut up a few fruits and slid them on the tray.

"Sometimes," the boy repeated, taking the fruit from her.

Jackie grinned, grabbing Rose's shoulder. "Oh! He's doing it to me now!"

"Well, yeah," the Doctor said, "you brought him food. Bring a parrot a cracker and he'll be your best friend."

She whacked him on the arm. "You're just upset that he isn't copying you. Don't call my grandson a parrot."

"Parrot," the boy said around a mouth full of strawberries, a slight chuckle in his voice. He took a slice a banana, then spit it out, wiping at his tongue in disgust.

"What?! The Doctor said, his face falling. "You're actually serious, aren't you? You don't like bananas? Bananas are good! Tell him! Rose! Jackie!"

The boy laughed again. "Jack."

"No, it's Jackie," his grandmother informed him. "You don't have to call me that though. We could go with Gran. Or Nan—oh no that makes me sound so old." She said in horror, covering her mouth.

"Jack," the boy insisted.

"Look at that," the Doctor said, suddenly a bit more serious. "You didn't repeat that. You heard it early and used it. That…you shouldn't be able to do that. Not yet, not by any stretch of the imagination."

Rose frowned at him. "Is something wrong? He's just smart, that's all. He's a smart boy, he learns quickly."

"He learns quickly. Jack," the boy said.

"Is that your name?" Rose asked, wiping a bit of fruit juice off his face. "Are you Jack? You want to be named after your grandma?"

"Jack," he said again happily.

"That smile," Rose said, washing the juice from his hands. "My god, you smile just like your father. Okay then, I don't see why you shouldn't have a say in your name. Jack it is. If that works with you, Doctor," she said suddenly, turning back to him.

"Jack is lovely," he said, nodding. "Great name— Jack be nimble, Jack in the box, Jack and the beanstalk—"

"Jack Harkness," Rose laughed.

"No. No, not like Jack Harkness, no. Nothing like him," the Doctor shivered.

The loud scraping of the chair against the floor grabbed all their attention as Jack stood from the table, stepping carefully on long shaky legs into the living room. They followed him, watching him carefully as he explored the room, picking everything up and examining it. His grin grew after each new discovery. They sat and watched, getting just as much enjoyment as he did from watching him find new things. He spent a good five minutes staring intently at a vase Jackie had placed on the coffee table, studying the three roses placed inside of it.

Finally he stretched his fingers out and inspected them. "Fingers," he stated, looking over at the Doctor.

"Well, look at that!" the Doctor said. "He does remember last night."

Jack lifted one of the roses out of the vase and brought it to his face, then gently walked over to Rose and put it in her hand. "…look at that," he stuttered out a bit, trying to reuse the Doctor's words.

"Wow, that's a very nice rose, Jack," she said, pretending to examine it as closely as he had.

He looked between her and the flower, obviously trying to convey something he had no words for. The Doctor frowned, reaching over and taking the flower. "No, he can't be."

"What's he doing?"

"He recognized the word. He knows your name is Rose, and he's made the connection between your name and the flower. That's amazing. I've never seen a being learn that fast."

"He learns quickly," Jack said, repeating a snippet he'd heard earlier. "Jack learns quickly." He looked at Rose with a broad smile. "Rose?"

"It's Mum to you," she informed him, booping him on the nose as Jackie switched on the TV.

He laughed, poking her nose back, all traces of his earlier fear gone from his excited face. He heard more voices and turned to the TV, his eyes widening as he saw more faces running past the screen. He looked at the Doctor with wide eyes.

"What, did you think we were the only faces in the universe? This isn't even my only face. You've got plenty of things to see, Jack."

Rose watched the boy carefully as he examined the television. "Doctor? You've had other faces…Will he…?"

"Regenerate? No. One heart, one life. Mind you, he might live quite a while. One hundred, maybe two hundred years if he's careful. Then again… we'll have to keep an eye on his quantum state. If it's too unpredictable then… well then we'll have to find a way to fix it."

The voices on the television changed from happy to maudlin as Jack played with the buttons, switching channels. A grim faced woman in a pinstripe suit sat behind a news desk, facing her waiting audience through the screen.

—and there has been no development on the disappearance of Chairwoman McNab, but the remains of Professor Edwards from the University of Colorado, America, have been found. Authorities have placed the time of abduction at roughly 4pm, London Standard Time, meaning the Professor was still expected in classes when he suddenly disappeared from his office. The Professor's death is being considered connected to that of Miles Frobisher because the two had been close friends, despite their difference in location, and disappeared in the same way—from a locked office in the middle of two busy office buildings. The body of Miles Frobisher was found some weeks ago, but authorities will not discuss the details of how the bodies were found, or what they looked like. We do have it, on good eyewitness report accounts, that both the bodies may have been compressed in some way. This, on top of the death of Miss Toshiko—

Jackie switched the TV off. "Dreadful business. Too bad about Chairwoman McNab though, I voted for her you know—"

"How long ago was this?" The Doctor asked. He turned the TV back on, but the report was over. "Why didn't you tell us about this?"

"Tell you about murders? Why would I? They weren't crushed by a spaceship, if that's what you're thinking. Just ordinary humans killing each other. It's sad, but there you go."

"Professor Edwards, I knew him, I met him last year. He was working on a paper on his theory of Relative Time Travel, and I attended one of his lectures. He was way, way off mind you, but it was still fascinating to listen to a human get close to figuring it out. It's like watching a fish play chopsticks; it's not exactly Beethoven, but still pretty impressive by the standards of a fish. Miles Frobisher… I know that name, too. How do I know that name?" the Doctor sighed, rubbing his temples. "Ah! I can't think! It's this head! I need a bigger head."

"Doctor," Rose started, "if you know these people, do you think they're disappearance might be connected to you? With them disappearing like that…do you think someone is sending a message?"

"It could be. We should definitely check it out. I recorded a copy of his lecture, I should have it in the library on the TARDIS."

"Um, hello," Jackie said, crossing her arms. "I think you two are missing something. You have a child. You can't just go off, running about the way you used to, leaving him all alone."

The Doctor raised his eyebrow. "Well, no. Obviously he's coming in the TARDIS with us."

Jackie widened her eyes and threw her arms out, making a blockade between the Doctor and his son. "Not bloody likely! I've heard about some of the things you two get into. He's a baby! It's bad enough you run my daughter all over the universe; I barely get to see her. You can't take him too."

"Mum, there's no safer place than the TARDIS," Rose said reassuringly.

"Maybe, but you never stay in the bloody TARDIS, do you? You told me about the last places you've been. You fought the devil, those French clockwork men, that school, just a few miles down the road was all full of monsters, then Mickey and that whole Cyborg thing—"

"Cybermen. Those were Cybermen," the Doctor interjected quickly.

"Whatever! You aren't dragging my grandson all over Time and Space in that worn out phone box!"

"Oi! Bigger on the inside," he protested.

"Mum, I know how to take care of Jack," Rose said.

"How can you? He's not even a day old. No one knows exactly what he is—"

"Exactly, neither of you know exactly what he is, but I know him best. There's a reason I had to drink that goop in the TARDIS floor—he's part Time Lord. The TARDIS is his home, I'm sorry but it's true. It's where his parents live, where they fell in love, and if I have anything to say about it, it's where he'll spend most of his time. We will come back, Mum. All three of us, no matter how bad the situation gets, we'll always find a way back to you."

Jackie was about to protest, but she was surprised by Jack, hugging her from behind. She turned to him, the baby who was at her eye level. "Home," he repeated from his mother.

Jackie rubbed a bit of water from her eyes, hugging the boy back. "You better find your way back to me. Every time. I expect to see you again soon, young man."

The Doctor smiled to see his son hugging his grandmother. "You think telly is fun, Jack? Wait until you see the real world."


	7. Some Fashion Nonsense

Jack's one heart beat fast as he ran, looking at the world rush by him in a blur. He wasn't sure why they needed to run, these two strange creatures holding his hand and him, but he wasn't worried. The Mum and the man were smiling, it didn't look like they were in danger. They just liked this part; 'the running' she'd said, 'love the running'. As his long legs glided over the ground he was inclined to agree with her—this was the freest he had felt since he'd suddenly found himself in existence.

The air rushing past his face was new, the scent of the trees was something he had never dreamed of. There were other people on the street, looking suspiciously at the little family who was running for no apparent reason. Jack laughed, something he'd just learned to do and found quite enjoyable. The man was nice, but the woman was magnificent. The Mum was wonderful and soft and she spoke sweetly. He held tightly to her hand the most, wondering where they were taking him.

"Slow down, slow down," Rose chuckled, pulling Jack to a slow stop as they reached the little blue box.

"Slow down," he copied, panting slightly through his excitement.

"That was fun," she giggled. "A bit unnecessary maybe, but…"

"Oh, nothing wrong with a bit of exercise. Look, he loved it," the Doctor said as he unlocked the door. "Jack," he said, preparing to open the door with a grand gesture, "welcome home."

The Doctor flung open the doors of the TARDIS, and suddenly Jack was very confused. It had been a very stressful day, with many new things he had to learn, but one of the first things he had gotten down was size. His person fit inside this little flesh body. His food fit inside his belly. The people fit inside the room. He was fairly certain that none of these things could be reversed. The room would not fit inside the people, his belly would not fit in his food, and this huge room should not fit inside a box. Yet, there it was.

He walked into the metal room with big eyes, recognizing the metal on the ground. He pulled his mother to the console and he laid down as he had when he'd been born.

"Yeah, you recognize this place," Rose said, pulling him up. "We'll find you a room. There's thousands in here, you'll have plenty of space. Doctor, listen, about this lecture…"

Jack heard another voice, echoing behind hers. Hello…Child of time…come here…come to me. He smiled, looking around for the source of the voice. There was the man, messing with the control switches, and there was the Mum beside him, talking about something Jack didn't understand. The smile faded. He had noticed, quite quickly, that when there was a voice, there was a mouth to go with it. Even the strange people on the television had had mouths. The others' mouths were busy though, and he knew his own voice, so who was talking?

My thief and the yellow girl…they cannot hear…none other can hear…but you were born with me, born to hear…born the perfect Time Lord…but oh, the pain I see for you in the future, Dear Child. My thief…he will be so sad when you are taken from him…Poor Doctor…Poor yellow girl…

Doctor! That was it, that was the man's name standing with the Mum. Jack smiled. His previous assumption, he figured, must have been wrong. Apparently one did not need a mouth to speak. This voice, however, was soothing and nice and calm, so he would trust it. So far, in life, he'd met no one who wanted to hurt him, and this voice seemed friendly enough.

"Yellow girl," he repeated dutifully, hoping the voice could hear him and knew he was trying to learn from it.

"Well, Jack," the Doctor yelled, clapping his hands together, "come on! It's about time we get you out of that robe. I've got quite a closet, you can pick anything you like."

Jack looked worriedly at Rose, then back towards the door. She nodded, kissing his forehead. "That man, he's the Doctor, Jack. He's your father, and he's the most wonderful man I've ever met. You can trust him, really."

Jack shyly walked with the Doctor, watching him closely. There was nothing wrong with him, exactly, at least nothing he could see, but something about this Doctor person troubled him. He seemed nice, though, and the Mum liked him. She'd said he was his father, and though he wasn't entirely sure what that meant he had to admit that there were certain similarities between the two of them.

The Doctor stopped in front of a door, a wild look on his face. "This is my favorite part of regenerating," he whispered conspiratorially. "I'm never quite sure who I am until I pick out an outfit. So," he flung open the door, "show us who you are, Jack Tyler."

Rose was making her bed when she felt two long arms snake around her waist, holding her loosely. She smiled laying one hand over the Doctor's fingers. "Where is he?"

"Getting dressed."

She spun around. "How? He doesn't know what a shirt is, much less how to button a coat," she went to push past him.

"He's fine," he assured her. "He's a fast learner, Rose. He shouldn't be speaking yet, much less formulating his own phrases, like he has been. He's seen us in clothes, he knows how they work."

She sighed, sheepishly sweeping her hair back. "You're right. I suppose this is all a bit new."

"I suppose it would be."

She stopped a minute, tracing the outline of his face with her fingertips. "I'm sorry. You told me. Jack… he isn't your first child. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he nodded gently. "I've had my children. This is different."

Her face fell. "What do you mean?" she let go of him and backed away a bit. There was a deep fear in the pit of her stomach, and for a moment she looked at him as though he were a Dalek, a heartless thing looking at her in confusion. "Doctor, Jack is every bit as much as your son as any child you may have had in the past. What, you think that since you got to have a family, anyone born after that is just extra? You aren't as worried about him as me— you wanted to get rid of him when we found out about him! Jack is my son, and if you don't want to take his life seriously then just drop us off—"

"Whoa!" he said desperately. "Whoa, hang on! What are you talking about? Who said anything about me not caring about Jack?"

"You said he was di-different," she stuttered, letting him take her hands.

"Of course he's different. Time Lords weren't born fully formed, Rose. We started as babies, just like humans. Jack is something I've never seen before, all the rules are changed. Don't get me wrong—when I see him I think about my other children, but only because I failed to protect them. I have something I never dreamed of having before. I have another chance. You gave me another chance Rose. If Jack continues like this, I have the possibility of leaving something behind me in the universe besides a hodgepodge of legends calling me Destroyer, or the Storm. Jack isn't normal, Rose, but that doesn't mean he's not important. I've never met anyone who wasn't important, much less my own son."

Rose sighed, holding a hand over her mouth. "For a minute I thought…"

"Well, don't. It's a bit more difficult for us to connect, yeah, we haven't had years to do it in. You he trusted right away because you're his mother. Mothers are special, they're the thing that brings you into the universe, and you know them before anything else—especially Jack, since he was conscious through part of the pregnancy. It might take me a while, but we'll get there. We're a family, Rose. If we were perfect it'd be boring."

"No boring on the TARDIS."

"Exactly," he grinned.

They were distracted by a rapid tapping of feet. "Jack?" Rose called. "Jack, we're in here, Sweetheart."

She heard the running feet change direction, and then suddenly Jack was at the door, the wild expression of outright glee on his face, making her chuckle. Then she saw his clothes and the smile disappeared.

"Oh, that's brilliant!" the Doctor exclaimed, looking at his son's wardrobe appreciatively.

"No," Rose said quickly, "absolutely not."

Jack looked at her crookedly, the small red hat sliding down onto the floor. He was in a colorful patterned shirt, covered by a tweed jacket with leather on the elbows. His pants were bright white, with a question mark on each knee. He was wearing a long military coat around his shoulders, and the long colorful scarf nudged the little red hat that rolled dolefully around his feet. He held the clothes to himself excitedly, grinning at Rose. "Look," he stuttered.

"Yes, I see it, and no, you are not wearing that."

"Oh, come on," the Doctor whined, eyeing, straightening Jack's crooked shirt. "He looks great. I haven't seen this scarf in ages. And what is this," he picked the hat from the ground. "Is this a fez? That is classic; that is just…a little bit…cool? No, that's definitely the wrong word. Still, you pull it off, not many people can do that."

"Is that a bowtie?" Rose frowned.

"Of course it's a bowtie, why not?" he asked.

"Well, for one, it's around his wrist."

The Doctor slipped it off Jack's wrist and started to hang it around his neck. "Well, your mother was wearing a bracelet, he hasn't seen anyone wear a bowtie properly yet. Scarves are easy, bows are hard. He guessed."

"He can't wear that," she insisted. Jack eyes fell a bit, rounding out at the corners and dragging his eyebrows with them until he resembled a sad puppy. "Oh, no," she sighed, covering her face, "he can do the thing."

The Doctor threw an arm around his shoulders, copying perfectly the expression on Jack's face. "Please, Mum, he just wants to wear something creative. Will you stifle his creativity?"

"On the TARDIS only," she grumbled. "Did we have a lecture to go over or not?"


	8. Sleep and Time

"Sorry I asked," Rose muttered sleepily from an armchair in the TARDIS library.

When the Doctor said they should go through lecture tapes, she had wrongly assumed he maybe one of two audio clips to listen two. In fact, the Professor had given a series of lectures, and they were now on tape eighteen. The Doctor was fascinated, leaning forward in his seat as Professor Edwards droned on about his wayward time theories. Once in a while he'd let out a guffaw or two, comparing Edwards to the Keyboard Cat or some other very impressive Earth animal. Rose, for the most part, had checked out during tape number three. If there was anything in the words to clue them in to the disappearance of their owner, it was definitely worth finding, but the Doctor seemed to have a handle on it.

The Doctor laughed. "Did you hear that, Rose? He just compared the Time Vortex to a slinky. Can you imagine? It's a bit wibbly mind you, but definitely not wobbly. Well, maybe a little wobbly, but nothing like a slinky. Besides, you know what's more fun to push down the stairs than a slinky? A Dalek. Seriously, they tumble quite nicely—are you listening to me?"

"Daleks are slinkies, wibbly wobbly, nothing boring on the TARDIS," she yawned.

He blushed a bit, pausing the tape. "It is quite late, your time; we've been in here a couple of hours." he mused. "Would you like a couple human hours to sleep?"

She glanced nervously at Jack in the corner.

"I can watch him, he'll be fine," the Doctor promised.

"Should he sleep?"

"Could be. If he gets tired, he'll fall asleep. That's a reflex even human babies have, Rose, he'll make do. You can't exactly teach him."

"I'm sleeping here, then," she muttered, laying back against the chair. "If you need anything, wake me up."

"We're fine," he promised, switching the tape back on, "get some rest. I love you."

She smiled as well as she could muster, muttering something in agreement before drifting quickly off to sleep.

Jack did not notice anything going on behind him. Rose had been worried, at first, about bringing him into the TARDIS library with them to listen to some man talk about science concepts she had no comprehension of to begin with. As soon as they had walked into the room a few hours before, though, his attention had been immediately diverted. Standing in the corner of the room, and covered by more clutter than anything in here had a right to be covered in, stood an old record player the Doctor had used decades before.

Jack was drawn to it instantly—the Doctor had left the record spinning without the needle down the last time he'd used it, and with the TARDIS's perpetual energy that could have been anywhere from a day ago to a century. The last record spun silently around and around as Jack had approached it, wondering what this new things was. The Doctor had reached around him, pulling the little needle down to the grooves.

"Ah, perfect! Let's have a little music." Strange rhythmic sounds poured from the record and he jumped, fascinated as he watched the little needle dance over the sound.

I have died every day

Waiting for you

Darling don't be afraid

I have loved you

For a thousand years…

"Hey, I know this song," Rose hummed, "How did you find this on a record? Those are ancient."

"Nah, not for long. By 2013 vinyl was making a comeback. By 2020 you could find them just as easy as downloads. One thing I love about humans; they are suckers for a bit of nostalgia." He took Rose's hand and spun her to his chest. "Dance?"

"Love to," she giggled, stepping quickly into a happy waltz. It didn't match the song, or the tempo, but it was beautiful, and Jack had watched them with wide eyes and a broad grin. When the song finally had switched over to the next one the two adults had settled down to listen to the lecture tapes, but Jack was not interested in what they were doing. This new thing, this music, was wonderful, and this new song sounded so different than the last. The voice was higher, and just as melodic. He had plopped himself down in front of the machine, staring at it as the notes floated around him.

I remember tears streaming down your face

When I said I'd never let you fall

"That's what you are, Jack," Rose had called over, "safe and sound, Love. Should we find something productive for him to do? This isn't like parking your kid in front of the Telly is it?"

"Oh, he's fine. Music's good for you, it'll help his vocabulary anyway."

That was the first moment Jack realized that these sounds were words. He'd heard words before, from the three people he'd met, but he had never heard them put to music. He was entranced then, listening to each song intently, learning new words he hadn't heard from anyone before. He was convinced from that moment that there was a specific song he was waiting for, that somewhere someone had written a song especially for him and he had to find it to understand more of what was going on around him. Every now and then the machine would stop playing and one of them would come over and place a new black disc on it for him.

After an hour, Rose had come and placed a small plate of foods he'd enjoyed the last time in front of him, plus a few new foods he hadn't recognized. He smiled at her and repeated the actions he had learned in his grandmother's kitchen, clearing his plate so quickly that Rose brought him another, thinking he must have been starving. He picked at it, wondering at this 'food' business. When he'd woken in the bed at Jackie's he'd been very uncomfortable around his middle. There was an empty echoing, like something was missing, but he didn't know what it was. Then, after he'd eaten, the ache went away.

After two hours of listening to music, some new thing was beginning to bother him. There was an unpleasant weight behind his eyes, and the lids to them kept closing without his permission. A new song started and he tapped at his hand in annoyance, hoping to make himself pay attention.

Whatever you do,

I'll do it, too

Show me everything and tell me how

It all means something

And yet nothing to me

His ears picked up and an eyebrow raised. He understood most of these words now, and something about them felt important.

All these emotions I never knew

Of some other world far beyond this place

I see myself as people see me

I just know there's something bigger out there

I want to know

Can you show me?

I want to know about these strangers like me

Tell me more

Please show me

I want to know about those strangers like me

He giggled a bit, looking at his own hands. This was it, he had found the song he was waiting for. The mum would be so happy to hear he had a song. He hopped to his feet and spun around, trying to figure out how to get them to replay the song for him, when he noticed something had changed. The Doctor was sitting in the same spot, still listening to the tape in front of him on the table, and the Mum was there too, sitting in the soft chair. The Mum's eyes were closed now, though. She wasn't moving.

His first instinct was to run to her, to check on her and make sure she was okay, but he heard the mysterious voice whispering in his head again. Oh, do let the poor yellow girl alone. She has not slept well in a very long time. Her body got no rest before, she was giving you all her strength you lucky boy.

He stood still, not wanting to disobey the voice, but his heart was racing fast in his chest. "D…Doctor?" He stuttered out for the first time, sheepishly staring at the floor.

The Doctor looked up from the tape, a crooked smile on his face as he slid off his brainy specs. "Well, hello there! Getting a bit tired of the music? We can find something else for you to do instead. It's a big ship, lots of rooms to play around in."

"Mum," Jack said, worriedly, pointing at her limp form.

"What about her?" the Doctor whispered, glancing over at Rose. "Oh! Don't worry. She's just sleeping. She's fine."

Jack tilted his head a bit, eyeing Rose worriedly. He was about to say something else when a great rumble started to run through him. It started in his chest, and then traveled to his ears as he sucked in a large breath and let it out slowly.

"Yawning? You're actually tired? Well, I guess you have been through a lot today, after all. Okay, come on; we'll put mom to bed and then get you into one."

Jack was going to ask what he was talking about, but the Doctor held a finger to his lips. The older man gently lifted Rose from her chair, so slowly and carefully that she did not so much as stir. He inclined his head, motioning for Jack to follow him, then they carried her out of the library.

Jack recognized the room they set his mother in—he'd seen them in it before when he showed them his clothes. The Doctor set Rose down gently on one side of the bed, folding the covers over her. He kissed her forehead, then he took Jack's hand and led him out of the room.

Jack yawned again as his father led him to a door right next to the other one. The Doctor knocked on it a couple times, smiling into empty space. "Remember what I asked you to do?" he called out to the TARDIS. "I hope you heard me."

Oh, yes, my Doctor, Jack heard, I heard you, I always hear you, it's only you who does not listen.

The Doctor peeked inside the room, then clapped his clapped his hands against the doorframe excitedly. "There's my girl. Jack, what do you think?"

He pushed the door open and Jack peeked inside. Inside there was a new room, wide, but still snug. The wallpaper was a bright burnt orange that seemed to glow just a little in the bright light. Along one wall was nothing but shelves and shelves of books of all different genres and sizes. In one corner sat a brand new record player, much nicer than the one in the library. There were vases of roses along a short, black dresser. Just across from the door there was wide four-poster bed, covered with soft red bedding. Above the bed there were intricate circles and lines drawn in shining ink.

"It's us," the Doctor explained, running his long fingers over the glimmering rings. "This is Gallifreyan for Doctor, Rose, and Jack. I asked the TARDIS to pull it together for you, it's just a little desktop room, but it should work, eh?"

Jack ran his fingers alongside the Doctors, examining the circles. There was something familiar about this writing in a primal sort of way. He didn't need the writing explained—he'd known what it said the minute he saw it. He wanted to tell the Doctor this, but he wasn't sure he had the right words.

"Well, anyway," the Doctor said, "time to get to bed." He pulled back the covers and sat Jack down on them, pulling off the outer layers of his wild clothing before laying him down and covering him up. Jack raised a confused eyebrow, wondering what new strange ritual this was. He yawned again.

"Goodnight," the Doctor said, heading to the door ad flicking off the light.

Suddenly Jack was in darkness, and he didn't like it. He let out a frightened yelp and the Doctor quickly turned the light back on. "What? What's wrong?"

Jack looked at him shyly, the effective injured puppy look on his face again.

"Oh. Well, maybe you don't understand." He pulled a chair over to the side of Jack's bed. "Okay, um, humans—and Time Lords too, don't get me wrong—we sort of run on a battery. When we stay up and active for a long time we run that battery down and need to recharge it. The way we do that is…how do you explain sleep? It's normal, perfectly normal, humans need it every day to function properly. I can go on much less, but you might fall somewhere in the middle. Um…watch."

The Doctor pretended to yawn. Jack copied him involuntarily.

"See that? That's a yawn. It means you're tired. It means your body wants to close up shop for the day. Tomorrow morning you'll be all ready to run wild again."

Jack stared at him blankly.

"Kids and bedtime…" the Doctor sighed, thinking deeply. "Okay, how about a story? I think I have enough of those to get through. Let's see…Once upon a time, a long, long distance away from here, there was an orange planet with red grass and giant mountains."

Jack smiled, seeming to settle down into his pillow.

"Okay, you like stories. Good, love stories, they can take you anywhere a TARDIS can. Anyway, on this orange planet there was an old man who wanted to see the universe, and his granddaughter Susan—your niece, as a matter of fact. So the man and the girl decided to leave their home."

"So, anyway I, Jaimie and Zoe are walking through the tall forest with these weirdly shaped trees, and we still have no idea who pulled us here of where the TARDIS is. Jaimie climbs one of them and—get this—they're letters. We're walking in a giant paragraph, I swear, acres long and I—"

He stopped and glanced at Jack's excited face. "This story is dragging on a bit longer than I intended. I probably should have stopped after my first regeneration there. Are you tired yet?"

Jack looked at him in confusion, then yawned again.

"Okay, still tired, still confused. I don't know what to do for you, Son. We tried warm milk a half hour ago. I don't even know what time it is," he said, pulling a small pocket watch out of his suit and clicking it open.

The Doctor was checking the time when Jack's hand came over his, grasping the watch gently from him. The boy brought the timepiece to his examining the little hands, spinning in a perfect pace.

Tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock.

"Craftmanship from our home. Jack. They had the best watchmakers in the universe, in any universe. I wish you could have seen them put one together."

Jack turned it over in his hand, then gently set the watch against his ear. His eyes got heavy, and the lids started closing repeatedly like they had in the library.

"Oh," the Doctor gasped, "of course, don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. You want an Earthling to sleep, play them the ocean. You want a Time Lord to sleep, let him listen to white noise where he's from. The ticking of a clock, Jack—not many sounds in the universe more beautiful than that."

Jack barely heard him. The Doctor's voice was becoming faint, drifting away from him as he got lost in the sound and the soft blankets. He felt a small, gentle pressure on his forehead, then he saw the room get darker through his eyelids.

"Goodnight, Jack," he heard the Doctor whisper somewhere.

Then everything was warm and dark.


	9. Where's Home

When Rose woke up she was very aware of the Doctor lying next to her, holding her tightly from behind. She turned over, meeting his wide awake face. "There's no way you slept last night."

"Nope. I finished the lecture, put Jack to bed, and then did some snooping about. I just thought I'd be here when you woke up."

"Snooping around where? Did we learn anything about Professor Edwards?"

"Not from my tapes. Great to listen to, mind you, the man was an absolute genius, but nothing seemed off about him."

"Couldn't we just pop back a few months and ask him if he thought he was in danger?"

"Established events. We know it's happened, can't be changed now or we'd have no reason to go back and ask. Great big old paradox. Maybe your mother was right."

Rose stared at him.

"Well, you know, just about this being humans attacking humans. Not about anything else. Ever."

"Could be. Where do we go then?

"Anywhere," he shrugged. "There's so much to see. I have a million things I still want to show you, and a billion things to show Jack."

She smiled. "So we travel. We show him everything, twice, and then find something else to do."

"That could take a while," the Doctor smiled back. "I've been at it seven hundred years and I've only seen a small portion of the universe."

"Then we better get started," Rose teased.

He leaned forward and kissed her on the nose, then heard the sound of a door slamming loudly next to their room. They heard footsteps running, getting quieter, then disappearing. Rose frowned, jumping out of the bed and peering down the hallway.

"Jack?' she called.

The Doctor slid behind her and opened Jack's door. "He's gone."

Her heart sank. Why would Jack leave? How would he know where to go? Had someone taken him? "Jack!" Rose called, running down the hallway.

They barreled toward the control room, not sure what they would see. Rose's heart beat faster and faster, whipping around the archway to the face the TARDIS controls. There, running his hands appreciatively over the controls, stood Jack. His wide-eyed grin turned to face her, and he waved excitedly.

"Morning, Mum! Morning, Doctor!"

Rose stared at him. "Um…good morning, Jack. You…you're talking?"

"Oh, yes! The music was a big help, loved the music. Took me a bit to catch on—got a good night's sleep though, just what I needed," he said, peering intently at the time rotor.

The Doctor went to move past Rose, but she caught his arm. "He's talking," she whispered. "He could barely form sentences last night."

"Fast learner," the Doctor said gently, patting her on the arm. "He was already learning at an accelerated, exponential rate. We left home alone for eight hours, did you expect him to just stop thinking in his sleep?"

"I know what this is!" Jack said excitedly, pressing his face up against the glass of the time rotor. "The coordinate setter, the zig-zag plotter, the door release—it's all so beautiful!"

"I know, right?" the Doctor said excitedly, tapping the machine lovingly.

"How do you know what any of this is?" Rose said worriedly. She took hold of his face and stared him. "Do you feel okay? Do you need to sit down?"

He giggled a bit. "Last night, Mum, something weird happened. I remember being in bed and the Doctor was telling me a story, then everything went dark. Suddenly I was standing in a big, um… a large open space with grass in it, what's that?"

"A meadow," the Doctor said from the controls. "You dreamt about a meadow."

"Oh, meadow, med-ow, I like that. Anyway, I was standing in meadow made of red grass, and the sky was all reddish…well more like a mix between red and yellow…is there a word for that?"

The Doctor wasn't looking at the controls anymore. He stared at Jack, his mouth slightly open. Rose tried to read his expression, but there was something so painful about it, she had to look away. "Orange. The sky was orange."

"Right," Jack grinned, not noticing the pain on his father's face. "It was so warm and wonderful. I walked a long time and found this big shining glass place. It was great, and when I woke up I saw this next to me." He pulled a watch from his pocket, holding it up for her to inspect it.

She looked over the watch, looking at him quizzically. He was grinning madly, expectantly, as if at any minute she would agree with him about something. "So…you found a watch?"

His face fell a bit, then he started to talk very fast. "No, not a watch, Mum. Time! I understand it—oh, isn't it wonderful? Millennia dropping to centuries and then to decades and years and seasons and months and days and hours and minutes and seconds and microseconds and on and on forever and ever, always getting bigger or smaller in every direction! Time! It's gorgeous, I don't know how I ever didn't know about it. It's elastic and firm, and simple and complex, oh Mum! Why didn't you tell me about it? You must love it as much as I do, but even more because you've had longer to appreciate it!"

Rose set the watch in his hand, patting it gently. "Time's lovely, yeah. I like traveling through it, at least. I guess I hadn't really given the concept itself much thought. It's a bit complicated."

Jack frowned, looking at her crookedly. "I don't…why don't you understand? You know everything and if I know this you must know even more. I bet you know everything about the TARDIS. I know how they work, in theory. I saw them in my head, I saw everything about them on that planet. They travel, right? Have you traveled a lot, Mum? All over time and space?"

"Some," she smiled. "Your dad takes me all sorts of interesting places."

Jack grinned again, spinning around to the Doctor. "Can we travel, Doctor? Could we visit that planet I saw?"

The Doctor tensed up, hiding his face from Jack for a moment. "No…no we can't visit there Jack."

"Why?" he asked, his eyes rounding disappointedly.

"That was Gallifrey, Jack. It's where I'm from. We can't go there."

"It's a planet, isn't it? It was so big and wide and wonderful, the TARDIS could take us there—"

"Jack," Rose cut in quickly, "why don't you go put on something a bit warmer? We were considering visiting the Olympics, but if we go the Winter Olympics you could see snow! Wouldn't that be lovely, Jack?"

"It's okay, Rose," the Doctor said with a sad smile. "Do you mind if I talk to Jack alone for a minute?"

She kissed the Doctor on the cheek, then Jack, and nodded. "I'll get dressed. Call if you need me."

"What's wrong?" Jack blinked, staring at the Doctor with his head slightly tilted. "Why can't you take me to Gallifrey? It's your home, don't you like it there?"

"Oh, yes. Very much. It was beautiful, just like you said. I wish you could see it for real—but it's gone, Jack. Gallifrey doesn't exist anymore."

"Where did it go?"

"It…there was a war, Jack. A terrible war that raged across the entire universe. The Daleks would have stopped at nothing to control everything—"

"What's a Dalek?" Jack asked innocently.

The Doctor flinched, squeezing one of the controls a little too hard. "They're…hard to explain. The war could have destroyed everything, killed everyone, but it was stopped. The price for stopping the war was Gallifrey, and all the people who lived on it. The Time Lords, that's what they were called, they're all gone. The meadow, the citadel, they burned into nothing. You're standing on the very last TARDIS in existence. That home is gone, Jack, and we can't ever go there."

Jack stared at the ground, thinking for a minute. "If you're from there, you're a Time Lord. Then, why are you still alive?"

The Doctor sighed. "I was the one…Jack, I had to. I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry, I burned your home into cinders to save the universe. I'm the last one. Well," he smiled a bit, "not anymore, I suppose. Now we have you, too."

"You destroyed a planet?" Jack asked slowly. "Is… Is that what we do? Do we stop planets that need to be stopped?"

"No," the Doctor said quickly, "I'm never violent, almost never. Violence is not the answer Jack, we never carry weapons. There's always a way to get out of fighting, there's always a way to be better than that, please remember that."

"Except for that time?"

The Doctor squeezed his son's wrist sadly. "I'm sorry, it's a bit confusing. Just, please remember that violence is not the answer."

"Okay, I understand. You can't be the last, though," he said suddenly, "What about Mum? She's a Time Lord, or a Time Lady I suppose. At least you have her."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Jack, your mother's not a—"

"Who says I'm not?" Rose asked walking in with a new outfit and a bright smile. "I might be the smartest Time Lady that ever lived, you don't know."

"And how long have you been listening in?" The Doctor teased.

"Not long," she said slyly, pulling a warm jacket over Jack's shoulders and wrapping a very long scarf around his neck. "I'm not a Time Lady, Jack. Just a regular human from Earth, not important like you two."

"Yes, you are," the Doctor said sweetly. "You're fantastic. You're the Bad Wolf, you're Rose Tyler, and you're—"

"Okay, I see the point," Rose brushed him off, fastening up Jack's button for him.

"I can do that myself, Mum. I'm pretty big, look at these giant hands. I could put on this…whatever this thing is. Dress, is that the right word?"

"Just watch me the first time, I've got it,' she insisted, waving his hands away. "It's a jacket. Dresses are something entirely different."

"Oh, got my name in it," he said excitedly. "Wait, why do you call it getting dressed, then?"

"I'm just saying," the Doctor interrupted, "there isn't a single person in the universe who isn't important. You are no exception, if anything you're doubly interesting, Rose."

Jack was looking back and forth between them. "So I'm part human, too? Part Time Lord and part human? What am I, then?"

"Don't exactly know," the Doctor said, clapping him on the shoulders. "Isn't that exciting?"

"But I'm different," Jack asked, following his father as he started to run erratically back and forth around the controls, pulling certain ones. "How many are there, like me?"

"None. Not ever. You're unique, Jack, an impossible thing."

"Is that good?"

"Of course it's good! Impossible is always good!" the Doctor said too loudly, throwing a lever back. The time rotor whirled, shaking the TARDIS around them.

"Which Olympic year are we going to?" Rose asked, grabbing a railing to avoid falling over.

"Not sure yet, we'll head there next," the Doctor said, catching the rail next to her and slipping his arm around her waist. "Got to make a quick stop first. You drained some of the time energy out of the floorboards, remember? We've got to make a quick stop in Cardiff, fill up at the rift. Then we'll be off."

Jack laughed excitedly, landing with a thump onto the padded bench of the other side of the room. There was so much to see in the universe, and he was ready for it.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

Captain Jack Harkness was sitting at his desk in what would eventually be the Torchwood Hub. This was more work than he had counted on, trying to put together a team to help in Cardiff. And now, with his computer genius missing… it wasn't looking good. His new medical doctor, Owen Harper, was downstairs. That new guy Ianto was around, he might send for some coffee in a bit. There was so much to do, so many plans to make, so many decisions that needed addressed.

But they would have to wait.

Because, at that moment, the hand sitting next to him in a jar began to jerk and bubble. He stared at it, dropping his pen onto his desk. The Doctor was coming. He jumped from the desk, grabbing his coat and the jar, racing out of his office.


	10. Two Jacks

"So we were knighted," Rose, continued, laughing with her son, "but it was only fun for like a minute, because immediately afterwards the Queen herself banishes us from her kingdom. Talk about fickle, right?"

Jack laughed, then drew his eyebrows together. "What's a queen?"

Rose stared at him for a moment, then looked at the Doctor. "He doesn't know who the Queen is."

"He didn't know what his jacket was this morning, to be fair," the Doctor smiled.

"This is unacceptable! He hasn't even had tea yet. I've never had to teach someone to be British before, but I think we're failing."

"I'm not from Britain," the Doctor argued.

"Doctor!" someone yelled.

They all looked up in confusion, and then suddenly the Doctor was at the control, madly pulling his levers. "Okay, I think that should be enough of a charge, eh? On to the Olympics!"

"Doctor, someone's calling you," Rose said, running to the door.

The Doctor pulled a lever and the doors locked. "Really? I don't think so, Rose, you must be hearing things."

Jack pulled the surveillance screen over. "It's a man in a long coat. He's holding something…I can't tell what it is."

Rose peeked over his shoulder. "Jack? Jack Harkness? Doctor, it's Jack Harkness. What are you…? Doctor stop the TARDIS!"

The Doctor fidgeted uncomfortably. "At this rate we'll never get where we're going, you know. Couldn't we just… pop off?"

"Leave him here?" Rose asked incredulously. "Doctor, we thought he was dead! Or at least…I thought he was dead," she looked at him suspiciously. "Did you?"

"I had…a bit of a sneaking suspicion of an inkling of the slightest, tiniest idea that he maybe, might have, probably, definitely survived."

"And you left him on Satellite Five?" Rose asked, crossing her arms.

"Hey, I did save your life," he protested, "and died in the process, thank you very much."

There was a pounding on the TARDIS doors. "Doctor! It's me! Open the door! I need your help!"

"Doctor, you need to let him in," Rose ordered, crossing her arms.

"I don't…want to, Rose. Something happened to him on Satellite Five. He's obviously alive and well, does he really need us meddling in his life again?"

"Doctor," Jack asked, eyeing his Father strangely, "I thought you told me you help people?"

The Doctor bit his lip, shaking his head. "There's something wrong with Captain Jack Harkness, something wrong with him at the core. He was brought back, Rose. He died on Satellite Five, you brought him back, and now he's wrong. He's not even human."

"Neither am I," Jack said flatly. "So we help people, but with one exception? You seem to have a lot of exceptions to your own rules."

The Doctor stared at him for a long moment, then sighed. He pull a lever and Captain Jack Harkness almost fell through the door.

"Took you long enough," the Captain smiled as Rose threw her arms around him in a tight hug. He spun her around once, hugging her a little too tightly. "Do you have any idea how many years I've been stuck here?"

"You had the Vortex Manipulator," the Doctor said from the controls. "It's not like I stranded you."

Captain Jack held up the small device. "It busted. I've been waiting around here for the TARDIS since the eighteen hundreds."

"Oh," the Doctor said, a bit sheepishly. "Sorry."

"Loving the new face," the Captain grinned. "Bit younger, isn't it? Did you decide you didn't want to look like you're robbing the cradle every time you get a new companion?"

"Totally unconscious decision," the Doctor said, "but Rose seems to like it."

Captain Jack looked back and forth between them, a sly grin sliding over his mouth. "Oh, don't tell me. The two of you, finally? Well, good to know when I was stuck in the past you were working on your love life."

Rose slapped him gently on the arm. "Did you say the eighteen hundreds? What have you been up to in all that time?"

"That can wait," the Captain said, one of his eyebrows raising. He grinned at Jack who was sitting innocently on the pilot bench. "A more important question would be, who is this?"

"Nope," the Doctor said quickly, pulling a long yellow streamer from one of his bigger-on-the-inside pockets. He wrapped one end around the zigzag plotter and wrapped it in a long spiral around the controls. He broke off the other end and put the new beginning strand in his son's hand, then wrapped it quickly over him five times. "Okay, everything with a yellow ribbon around it is entirely off limits. No touching, no flirting, no anecdotes, and watch your language."

Rose rolled her eyes, pulling the streamer off of her son and whispering at the Doctor harshly. "Stop being so paranoid. It's just Jack Harkness. What do you think he's going to do?"

"He's just learning language now, I'd rather limit his vocabulary until he's a bit older," he whispered back.

Rose stared him down. "And this has nothing to do with being freaked out by his accident on Satellite Five?"

"Okay…Okay you're right," the Doctor conceded. "Sorry."

"You're a bit protective over this new, companion, don't you think?" Captain Jack asked skeptically.

The Doctor sighed, pulling his son gently to his feet. "He's not my companion. He's our son. Captain Jack Harkness, meet my son, Jack Tyler."

The Captain stared at him as though he was joking, but the Doctor just stared back, arms crossed slightly. He looked between Rose and the boy. "And he's…how old?"

"A day," Rose said. "Almost exactly a day."

Jack leaned toward his mother. "This guy feels…weird, Mum. Plus, I think he's holding a hand in a jar

Captain Jack shrugged, then took the boy's hand, shaking it excitedly. "Believe it or not, I can explain that. I've never had someone named for me before."

"He's not," the Doctor said, tearing down his streamers and shutting the door behind them, "he's named after his grandmother, Jackie."

"Oh, well," the Captain shrugged, leaning in towards Jack conspiratorially, "doesn't matter where you got it, Kid—you'll have loads of fun with that name."

"Did you actually have something you needed help with, Jack?" the Doctor cut in.

"As if you don't know," the Captain said.

"Know what?" the Doctor said, barely paying attention.

"The abductions. You can't have missed them—especially if they're on our radar."

"Our radar?" the Doctor asked. "Exactly what have you been up to, Captain?"

"Torchwood. Started by Queen Victoria after she banished you two, the way I hear it. I have my own team in Cardiff… well part of one. I'm still building it. We monitor alien activity, and people dropping off the face of the Earth, disappearing out of locked rooms, that's something we notice."

"Ah, Miles Frobisher and Professor Edwards," the Doctor nodded. "We heard about that. When everyone was asleep last night I went to a few morgues; used the psychic paper to see the remains. They were all…sort of…crushed. I don't know of anything that could do that, or at least anything advanced enough to pull someone out of a locked room. We have been a bit busy, you know, what with a very sudden pregnancy and fully grown newborn. We've been looking into it since yesterday, but with all the possible witnesses dead, it is a bit difficult."

"Not all of them are dead," the Captain said grimly. "There's one person who was abducted, but isn't dead yet."

"What?" the Doctor, said, suddenly giving him his full attention.

"Toshiko Sato. I got her out a UNIT prison to be my computer expert a few weeks ago. When I left her, she was setting up our Hub's new system, in a locked vault, fifty feet below ground. I walked upstairs, got coffee from our new assistant, then walked back—it couldn't have taken me more than five minutes. When I came back, she was just gone."

"You said you got her out of prison," Rose said. "What's to say she didn't just run the second she had the chance?"

"Not Tosh, I trust her. It wasn't exactly a violent crime she was arrested for, and she's so excited about her new system. She doesn't deserve this, and I have to find her."

"I heard that name," the younger Jack said. They all looked at him. "Um, Toshiko. I heard that name on that box at Gran's."

"Box…The telly," Rose said, snapping her fingers, "you're right, Jack. I'm sorry Captain, the news said she was dead."

"We know what the news has been saying; we're the ones who told them to say it. Well, not exactly told them, but we falsified the death records. The police have no hope of finding Tosh, not when they don't even consider extraterrestrial interference to be possible. We convinced them she was found like the others to get them out of our way. But I know she's alive, or at least I know she was yesterday."

"How," the Doctor asked.

The Captain pulled out his mobile and shook it. "Because she sent me a message."

The Doctor took the phone, examining the screen. Tosh's name was at the top of the message and on the rest was a series of numbers, cut into tiny sections and alternating every half second. His eyes widened. "This is…this is incredible. Jack," he motioned to his son, "come look at this!"

The boy ran over, peering over his father's shoulder. "What is it?"

"Well, I suppose it's not too advanced," the Doctor marveled, wiring the Captain's phone into the TARDIS console. "But for an Earthling in the 21st century this is amazing. It's a numerical code fluctuating on the Kasternos principle to send message that can't be intercepted or interpreted until it reaches its destination. I have no idea how someone would even comprehend this kind of technology in this century, much less compose it and get it onto a mobile."

"That's Tosh for you," Captain Jack smiled. "Did I mention she was in prison for building a perfectly functioning sonic device from faulty blueprints?"

"Fantastic," the Doctor sighed in admiration, "it's minds like that will change this planet. The 21st century, that's when everything changes, I suggest you get your team ready Captain."

The numbers from the phone ran onto the bigger screen, slowly decoding into confusing chunks of letters:

Abrd Shp orb—cll scrity—1shot—hlp—Earth dngr : 82542322999-903-UYT

"Maybe I don't understand English as well as I thought I did," Jack wondered behind his mother. "None of that makes any sense."

"Sure it does," the Doctor said defensively, "but she didn't have much space to work with. "Aboard ship, in orbit. Using cell security box. One shot to send this message. Send help, Earth in danger."

Rose pointed at the screen. "What about these numbers, what are all these?'

"Communication code—kind of like a phone number. If I get to a transmitter I can dial it up; it'll help us see what we're dealing with," the Doctor beamed. "Oh, I like her. She's got to be one of the smartest humans I've ever…" he trailed off, staring quietly into space.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked, placing a hand over his.

"Oh," the Doctor said flatly, his eyes widening. "Oh! Of course, why didn't I think of this before?" he pulled down his screen, reading something off it that the others didn't understand, then typing wildly to change coordinates.

"What's happening," Captain Jack asked, "why do they have Tosh?"

"Don't you get it? She's a genius! She's one of the smartest humans I have ever encountered. Professor Edwards was another, his theories on time travel were exceptional. Miles Frobisher, his work in astrophysics are legendary, Chairwoman McNab ran on the basis of her inventive new plans for her district—they're geniuses, all of them! Only the smartest people are being taken. That, combined with the way the bodies were found, only points to one species. It's the Shestich."

"Is that bad?" Rose asked.

"Very, but it should be impossible. The Shestich are extinct."

"I thought impossible was good," his son said, pulling at Rose's elbow.

"Not this time," the Doctor shook his head. "They shouldn't exist, this has to go by a higher authority. I'm taking us all to the Shadow Proclamation."


	11. The Shadow Proclamation

The TARDIS set down with a shudder, and immediately the group heard people knocking at every wall.

"That'll be the Judoon," the Doctor said. "Captain, how much experience do you have with the Centralized Targeting System from the 50th century?"

"A bit. Enough."

"I don't want to risk Madam Helbot seeing you, immortality is a crime by the laws of the Shadow Proclamation. Stay in here, use the system, and track that message from your phone. If we know their orbit pattern, we'll have a better chance of finding Tosh. Rose, Jack, you two come with me, but be careful. These people are," he shivered, "bureaucrats."

Rose took her son's hand protectively as the Doctor pulled open the TARDIS doors. In front of them stood a platoon of Judoon, armed to the teeth and pointing several firearms directly at them. The little family looked entirely out of place here, in this bright white, sterile setting, crowded with soldiers.

Jack had never seen a creature that didn't look human before, but he found them fascinating. A human boy his physical age, perhaps, would have been intimidated to see giant rhino-men, but something in his DNA shook with excitement—everything he'd heard about the universe was true. The TARDIS did take them to a new planet, and these were actual, living beings; different from him, but still important. "Hello," Jack said innocently, waving his free hand.

The primed their weapons. Rose grabbed Jack and pulled him slightly behind her, putting as much distance as possible between him and the firearms. The leader stepped forward. "Noh hoh boh joh coh loh?"

"Roh!" the Doctor said quickly, holding up his hands. "Noh toh poh joh foh toh roh hoh! Earth English. 21st century."

"Official designations?" the Judoon asked.

"I'm a Time Lord. These are…my two human companions, from Earth. I come with them as a liaison to speak on their behalf due a threat encroaching on their planet."

The Judoon lowered their weapons. "Follow," the leader ordered, lumbering off slowly. The followed behind him, but Rose eyed the Doctor carefully, whispering very quietly.

"Should Jack be here? Should we have left him in the TARDIS?"

"Captain Jack's genetic makeup is compromised, so the Proclamation can't sense him in the TARDIS. Our Jack has a fairly normal bio-print, they'd sense him in there in a heartbeat and think we were trying to hide something. They have no reason to think he's not human, just play along."

The leader led the three of them into a wide white office area. Behind a bright white desk of screens and lights sat a woman—if that was the right word—dressed in a long blue robe. Her skin was a pale white and her eyes a dark red beneath her tightly packed short yellow hair. She stood officially, eyeing the trio with a mixture of aggravation and interest.

"The Doctor of Gallifrey, I assume?" she asked in a sharp voice.

"Yep," he said warmly popping his 'p' and extending his hand. She only eyed it in confusion so he pulled it back, scratching the back of his head. "Have we met before? Is that you Madam Helbot?"

"No, we have not met, but that is my name. You may have met my great grandmother, or her mother, or her mother before that. It is the duty of my family to carry out the best interests of the Shadow Proclamation. One of the old journals mentioned that there is only one Time Lord left in the universe, so we catalogued you." She pressed a button on the desk and suddenly there was a hologram copy of the Doctor standing in the middle of the room. She rotated her finger on the surface and it cycled through his previous regenerations, then read something off the screen. "The Doctor of Gallifrey. Aliases, The Predator, The Oncoming Storm, The Destroyer of Worlds, The Savior of Earth, The Last Child of Gallifrey, The Wanderer, The Traveler, Freelance Volunteer Protector of Earth—real name unknown."

"Quite a file you've got there," he said a bit nervously.

"Your file is extensive, Doctor. The Proclamation is currently unable to decide whether to give you a medal or an execution date."

"Yup, sounds like me," he shrugged apologetically. "Tell me, in this little catalogue of yours, what do you have on the Shestich?"

The woman frowned. "The Shestich are extinct."

"Yeah, I'm aware of that. These humans here, their planet is in danger. There are abductions taking place that only fit the MO of the Shestich. Earth is a level five planet, invasion, removal, or seeding of it is strictly prohibited by Section 3, subsection 24 of—"

"I know our rules!" the woman snapped. "I hold them all, burned into my mind, on rotation in my thought twenty-four hours a day for the last five hundred years. If you believe a crime is being committed then we will assist you in the apprehension of those responsible, but do not think you are leading children along at your coattails, Doctor."

"Sorry," he said quickly, "I'm aware of how unusual it sounds, but would you pull the file on the Shestich."

"We do not keep it on the active file list. Wait here", she said curtly, sweeping out of the room. Except for the Judoon leader standing stoically at the door at the far end of the room, they were alone.

"Who were all those people?" Jack asked his mother, pointing at where the hologram had been.

"Me," the Doctor smiled. "Time Lords do that. When they're dying they regenerate—all their cells changed until they look like an entirely different person."

Jack stared ahead, not looking at either of them. "It's a genetic mutation caused by the excess radiation of the Untempered Schism bleeding into Gallifreyan genes over billions of years until it became encoded into their DNA."

Rose widened her eyes. "Jack, how did you know that?"

Jack suddenly let out a startled cry, covering his eyes and grabbing at his temples in pain. Rose caught him before he fell over, supporting him as best as she could with her small frame. "Jack! Jack are you okay? Can you hear me? Doctor what's wrong with him?"

The Doctor already had the sonic out, scanning across Jack's pained face. He set his hands on his son's head, concentrating carefully, and the suddenly Jack gasped in relief. "It's gone. Oh, it's gone. My head."

"Jack, listen to me carefully," the Doctor whispered carefully. The Judoon in corner was looking more and more interested in what they were doing. "You can't look for information about the Time Lords in your mind. You were interested in regeneration, so you started searching for facts about it. That's incredibly dangerous."

"Why? What's wrong with questions?"

"Nothing, nothing is wrong with wanting to know things. But Jack, if you want to know something, ask me. Don't try to figure it out."

"I don't understand," he said, still rubbing a bit at his tender head. "Why did that hurt?"

The Doctor looked at Rose. "It's best if he knows, He won't accidentally break through without meaning to."

Rose nodded, kissing her son on the forehead.

"Jack," the Doctor said gently, "we had to do something to save your life. A Time Lord consciousness can't exist in a human head. Do you remember being in pain when you were born?"

Jack nodded.

"It was because you were too smart. Time Lord children are born with a basic knowledge of the universe, time and space. Because I'm your father, you were born with that knowledge too, and it almost killed you. I had to put a wall up, inside your mind, to keep it from overwhelming you. I thought it was working better, I thought we had more time to find a more permanent solution, but when I looked in your head just now I saw the wall was covered in tiny little cracks. You're causing those, Jack; you want the knowledge behind it so you're pushing against the wall. It's not strong enough to stop you, and if you're not careful you'll break right through it and burn out your brain. That headache you had just know was just a crack in the wall, you don't want to know what it would be like if it fell."

"Is there a problem?" Madam Helbot asked, coming into the room with a small disc in her hand.

"Ah, no problem at all," the Doctor said jovially, clapping Jack on the back. "Yesterday was an Earth holiday and my companion got a little too merry, if you know what I mean. He'll walk it off in no time."

She eyed the boy, her face expressionless, then she set the disc down on her desk. A hologram figure appeared in front of them; it was a tall very pale figure with large eyes and no hair upon its scaly head. A voice sprang from the device.

Official designation: Shestich. Aliases: None. Origin: Planet Tich 1, 2, and 3. Status: Extinct. Cause: Starvation. The adult Shestich lived primarily on the brain matter of other species. When harvesting of level five planets (those with intelligent life forms) became illegal due to Section 3, Subsection 24 of the Shadow Proclamation, there was no legal source of food for the Shestich. They turned to cannibalism, surviving for many years by attacking their own kind. They hunted each other into extinction one hundred years prior to this recording.

"Except they haven't," the Doctor said disapprovingly to the hologram. "Your records are faulty."

"Our records are immaculate," Madam Helbot snapped.

"I've met the Shestich, and you're very wrong about a very important detail. They don't live on brain matter. They can gain sustenance from almost any living thing—intelligent or not. It's a common misconception, I'd tell you not to feel bad about it, but, well, it's kind of your job."

"We did our research. We had five separate Shestich in here over long period of study before they died out. They dined exclusively on brain matter of the deceased beings we placed with them."

"Well, duh. They prefer brain matter, they consider it a priceless delicacy, that doesn't mean they need it. If you stick me in a room for a year and give me nothing but bananas and pears, but a steady supply of both, I'll never touch a single pear. It doesn't mean I can't eat them, it means I don't care to."

"The bodies weren't crushed," Rose said suddenly. The Doctor grinned at her—he loved watching her put the pieces together before these supposedly advanced races did. "They were emptied."

"Only the most intelligent," he nodded grimly. "They taste better. For some reason they have their sights set on Earth. If Tosh's message was right, this is only the beginning." He turned to talk to Madam Helbot, but she wasn't looking at him. She was staring directly at Jack.

"Well," the Doctor said, quickly, taking Rose's hand, "as the Freelance Volunteer Protector of Earth, I think I'll take my companions off to save their little rock. Always getting into trouble aren't you, silly little apes?" he said, ruffling Jack's hair. "Come along, humans."

"Wait," Madam Helbot said quickly. "Young man, may I speak with you a moment?"

"No time, no time, so sorry," the Doctor said quickly, leading them both towards the TARDIS doors. "I'll bring them both back after we save the world. How's Tuesday, is Tuesday good for you? Tuesday it is, I'll definitely bring them back on a Tuesday."

The Judoon leader stepped in front of the TARDIS doors, blocking them from escape. Madam Helbot took Jack's shoulder and spun him around. "What is your name?"

"Jack," he said simply, glancing nervously at Rose.

"And you are a human being, Jack? From Earth?"

The Doctor nodded almost imperceptivity, but Jack caught it. "Yes."

"You know, it is strange. I have been bred since infancy to recognize the genetic makeup of every life form in the universe. I look at the Doctor and I see the imprint of thousands of years of Time Lord physiology. I look at this…yellow girl and I see a rapid dissension from apes to intelligent life forms. I look at you, young man, and something is not right. I see nothing. You say your human—but then why do I not see the same history behind you as I see behind this woman? Why do you think that is, Jack?"

"I…I don't know," he said.

"Well, that's quite alright," she said, lifting her hands to his face too quickly for him to move away, "I'll just have to take a closer look."

"No!" the Doctor cried, trying to knock her way.

It was too late. The woman gasped and pulled her hands back as if she'd been burned. She glared at the Doctor with a look caught between shock and fury, her hands shaking. "What have you done? Oh, Doctor, what have you done!"

"It's okay—he's fine! Really, he's okay—"

"For how long? A week? A month? Doctor, there are rules against this!"

"What's going on?" Rose asked, pulling Jack away from the woman.

"Is the child hers? Have you even told her?" Madam Helbot asked him hysterically.

"Told me what?" Rose asked, holding her son behind her.

The Doctor looked down a bit, fidgeting uncomfortably. "Technically…Jack is sort of illegal. It's a stupid law—"

"It is a just law!" Helbot snapped.

"He hasn't done anything," Rose said. "It's not illegal to exist."

"The boy is not the criminal here, his Father is to blame," Helbot said, looking at Rose sadly. "What happens will be on his head. Time Lords are not allowed to have Half-breed children."

"It wasn't exactly some elaborate plan—we didn't even know our species were compatible," the Doctor said.

"Why not?" Rose said suddenly, drawing back their attention. "Why can't Time Lords have children with humans?"

"Their lives are dangerous, and short," Helbot said, placing a hand on Rose's shoulder and the other on Jack's. "You have my sympathy. Your son will not live long. There are horrible things in his future."

"You can't know that!" the Doctor insisted angrily. "He's not like the others. This is my son. I did not just have a baby with some woman on a planet and then abandon them—I will be here to help him! I can teach him right from wrong."

"Time Lord Half-breeds have taken down entire star systems with their recklessness. They have the intelligence of your people with none of the control. I hope for the sake of the universe you keep a close hold on him."

"So you're not going to arrest me, then?" the Doctor asked.

"Not yet," she said, "but we will be watching you." She turned on her heel and stalked back towards her office, motioning to the guard to let them into the TARDIS. "And Doctor," she called over her shoulder, "if the Time Lords were alive, you'd be executed."

"I know," the Doctor said solemnly, pulling his family with him into the TARDIS. Once Jack was out of earshot, Rose caught his arm, her eyes burning with a soft anger.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she whispered.

"I was going to. That first hour when we found out you were pregnant, I was going to tell you everything, but you made me promise. You asked me to give him a chance, so I did. I am. He does have a chance, Rose. We're giving him one."

She took his hand and nodded. "Jack is a good boy. He'll be a great man one day."

She had no way of knowing how soon that day would arrive.


	12. Phone an Enemy

"Have we got coordinates?" the Doctor asked once they were all safely in the TARDIS.

The Captain nodded, pulling the screen around to face them. "The Shestich ship is over Earth. It hasn't shown up on any radar, though."

"No, it wouldn't. The Shestich weren't too bright, but they were an old civilization, they knew their cloaking technology."

The Captain stood back to let the Doctor work with his controls, but accidentally bumped into Jack. "Oh, sorry Kid," he said, clapping him on the arm.

Jack stared at the Captain, and after almost a minute the older man finally looked back at him. "What?"

"How did you find the coordinates?"

"I used the TARDIS. I've been on here before, I'm familiar with some of the system. In the year I'm from humans are used to traveling in space and time."

The boy looked at his mother. "You are human, too, right? Could you learn to run the TARDIS?"

"I doubt it," she shrugged. "I don't really understand most of the mechanical parts of this machine."

"She could tell you," he said, patting a column of coral affectionately.

"Who?"

"The TARDIS," he said. "Would you mind? Would you teach Mum to set your coordinates and keep you stable, just in case the Doctor was ever unable to help her?" he called out.

She would not hear. The TARDIS said to him. You are special, Child. You could learn, you have learned so much already.

"Jack?" his father asked slowly. "Who are you talking to?"

"The TARDIS," he said, frowning a bit. "Obviously, she answered me."

"Jack, the TARDIS doesn't talk," he said. "She couldn't."

"But she does—"

"Sorry to interrupt," The Captain said suddenly, "but what did you guys learn? Is Tosh okay?"

The Doctor blinked at his son a moment, then hesitantly turned his attention back to the controls. "She might be alive yet, but she's far from okay. It makes no sense—they ate all the others they abducted right away, but she's been kept alive at least long enough to send a message. If the Shestich are orbiting Earth then something else is going on here besides a few casual hunts. Those poor people wouldn't have done much for their appetites either—three people could only feed a Shestich ship for a few days. She did say the Earth was in danger, now we have to find out how. This is plan A, but it is a bit of a long shot," he said as the TARDIS lurched to life.

The normal landing sound echoed through the room, then it let out a strangled vlooooorrrp and everyone inside was jerked to the floor.

"I figured," he sighed, "we can't get the TARDIS onto the Shestich ship—they're an old race. They would have guarded against most Time Lord technology during the Time War. Okay, Plan B." He switched the screen to show the numbers that Tosh had sent in her message. "We give them a call. Captain, where did you say this team of yours was?"

\-----------------------------------------------------------

Ianto Jones was raising a cup of his famous coffee to his lips when the door to the Hub let out a whining hiss. A short blonde woman ran through, holding a mess of wires in her arms as she pushed past him wordlessly. He choked on his coffee slightly. Was this a secure base? He was pretty sure it was. He should probably stop random people from just running in.

He was about to say something when another person burst through the door. It was a boy, around sixteen or so, with shaggy brown hair and excited eyes. He held a large monitor in his hands, and a wide grin across his face. "I'm coming, Mum!" he called, rushing past Ianto.

He suddenly stopped, skidding along the metallic floor a moment, and spun around to face the confused assistant. "Oh! Hello, new person," he precariously balanced the monitor in one arm so he could shake the confused assistant's hand. "I'm Jack Tyler, and that's my Mum. The Captain sent us. Nice to meet you!"

"Um…Ianto Jones."

"Oh, I like that," the boy beamed. "I've only heard about five names or so in my life, and three of them have been pretty much the same name. Is 'the Doctor' a name though?"

"Yes, it's a name," his father insisted running into the Hub with the captain, holding a large machine. Ianto didn't even want to speculate on what that was supposed to do. "You know, you can call me Dad, if you want."

Jack just shrugged. "Dad is not your name."

"'Mum' isn't your mother's name. That doesn't stop you."

"Do you mind being called Doctor?" he asked a bit uncomfortably.

"No," he said finally, the slightest hint of disappointment in his voice. "Come on, Jack! We've got a bit of a ticking clock here. Allons-y!"

The Doctor stopped in his tracks with wide eyes. "Allons-y? Why would I say that?"

"Is that English?" his son asked, following after him dutifully.

"Nope, French. Do you have a middle name, Jack?"

"Middle? As in another? I already have two. Isn't that enough?"

"From now on your full name is Jack Alonso Tyler."

"Absolutely not!" Rose called as they started setting their things up where the Hub's Rift Manipulator would one day be. "His middle name is Russel."

"Russel?" the Doctor scoffed. "I don't like it."

"How about Steven?" she shrugged.

"I changed my mind, Russel is better," he said, connecting a few wires into the larger machine and pulling the monitor around. "Alright, I should be able to use the rift as a transmitter. We'll use the number Tosh gave us, and give the Shestich a little ring."

"To say what?" the Captain asked. "How are you? What's your sign? Eat anyone interesting lately? Oh, and by the way, are you planning to destroy the world?"

"There's a chance they think no one's noticed them. If I tell them the Shadow Proclamation is watching, they might just get scared and leave on their own."

"And if they don't?" Rose asked.

"Well, then we find a Plan C. That's why I like the alphabet, you can fail 25 times before you reach your last chance. And…" he said slowly as wired Jack's phone into the mainframe, "there. Great big Rift-to-Spaceship phone call. Sorry in advance about the bill, Captain."

The Doctor leaned back in a rolling chair comfortably as everyone stood around him, intensely watching the dark screen. There was a flickering of light and static, and then suddenly the screen was filled with the image of a bright white, scaly creature with big eyes. An ornate helmet sat upon its head, and as it saw them it showed a row of yellow, pointed teeth. It roared loudly and Jack jumped back a little. Rose grabbed his hand reassuringly and he stood strongly again, trying to look braver than he was.

"Oh, argggghhhh yourself," the Doctor rolled his eyes. "You have the ability to speak, use it."

"We know who you are," the creature growled. "We caught you on our radar days ago. The Doctor."

"Oh, good, you've heard of me, that'll save us some time," he smiled. "And who am I addressing?"

"I am Commander Malfosh! I am the last leader of the Shestich race, Master of the seventh star of the—"

"Let's not have a long title war, it'll take forever and you'll lose. Straight to business then. I am here to arrest you on behalf of the Shadow Proclamation due to crimes against the people of this planet. But, since I'm such a sweet guy, I'll let you go as long as you promise never to come back."

The creature let out a breathy series of gasps that they could only guess was a chuckle. "You? You claim to be a good man? It was by your assistance that the Shadow Proclamation declared our only source of food illegal. You seek to destroy our entire race!"

"Now that is not true," he said quickly. "I have nothing against your species. I suggested that planets at a certain level be protected against inhumane hunting practices, but then I told them there should be a way to get deceased bodies for races that eat more advanced organisms to live on. I know you can live off of dead bodies, didn't they create that program for you?"

"We are the Shestich!" it hissed angrily. "We do not live on charity and pre-hunted food."

"You had the option. I did not leave you to die, I offered you food and a way to live peacefully, and you chose to ignore it, that's not my fault."

"Who are you trying to convince?" it spat. "The blood of my people will be on your hands, Doctor. Why do you think we chose your favorite planet for our new food source? We will taste their blood as you have spilt ours."

He stared at the creature dangerously. "This planet is protected. Your little shield may have hidden you long enough to steal a few poor souls, but I'm done playing games now. You have my full attention, and trust me, you don't want it. You'll never take another human off this planet. I'm giving you a chance to leave, I suggest you take it."

"Soon we will have no need to steal your little pawns. We'll have an army of little morsels, a silo full of food to last us decades."

"Oh, you're not looking towards little fish anymore are you?" the Doctor asked, the slightest look of appreciation on his face. "Danger for the Earth. The whole Earth."

It chuckled again, then sniffed the air excitedly. "Oh, such intelligence, I can sense it even from here. You would taste excellent."

"Time Lord physiology," he said wiggling his fingers. "You can't send one of your little portals after me. Too bad though, it would save us time, because I am going to get onto that ship, I promise you. No cute little cloaking technique can stop the TARDIS for very long."

The creature grinned maliciously. "I wasn't speaking to you, Doctor, we are well aware of your incompatible physiology. You don't want us to take another human? Fine, until we have our food supply, we'll live off of something close to human."

There was a flash in the Hub. In the center of the room a wide circle of energy appeared, the same one the Professor, Chairwoman, and Miles Frobisher had seen in the last moments of their lives. The light rushed them all, too quickly for anyone to react. It rushed past them, and then it was gone.

"I've just told you," the Doctor said, rolling his eyes, "you can't abduct a Time Lord."

"Doctor," Rose said, suddenly, her voice rising rapidly, "where's Jack?"

The Doctor turned. The Captain stood next to Rose, and Ianto a few feet behind him, but his son was not with them. Tears welled in Rose's eyes and she let out a strangled wail, running to the screen and smacking it with her palm. "Where's my son?! You monster, where's my son?!"

His veins turned to ice. His hearts broke. They flashed in front of him, the mental images of his children, the one's he'd let down, and now Jack's innocent face was among them. His eyes burned in a way Rose had never had the misfortune of seeing up to this point. For just a moment, he looked exactly like what he was. An alien.

"Give him back!" he screamed at the creature on the screen. "I order you to bring him back! I will burn you! If you think I have been the enemy of the Shestich in the past, you have seen nothing. If you harm a hair on his head I will personally destroy each and every one of you! Every last one!" he yelled.

"Half-Breeds taste the best," the creature mused, "but they're so hard to get ahold of these days. You want the Earth, Doctor? Have it. The humans, and whatever this thing is you've brought us, they belong to us now."

The screen went blank.


	13. The Wall

One minute Jack was standing with his mother, staring at the alien on the screen in front of him, and the next he was in darkness. "Mum?" he called out, feeling out in front of him. "Doctor? Are you here? I'm afraid."

Hands reached his and grabbed at his arms, but they were not his mother's. They pulled him harshly to one side, and he felt hot breath against his scalp. A hand clamped against his mouth as he tried to scream. He swung his head back, and heard something snap. There was a pained snarl behind him and he felt pinpricks against his scalp.

There was a soft growl as a bright light flickered on. Jack's eyes adjusted quickly to see the Commander he'd seen on screen a few minutes before. Above him loomed another Shestich with its sharp teeth against his scalp. "Don't. Not yet," the Commander ordered. "The Doctor seemed very attached to this Half-Breed. We might need to use him if something goes wrong. Throw him in with tonight's dinner."

The other Shestich grumbled, pulling his teeth away from Jack's head. "It broke my nose," he hissed. "Can I return the favor?"

"No marks," the Commander said after a pause. "This makes me nervous—we will have to hurry things along. Tell them to start the countdown."

"It's not entirely ready, Sir—"

"Start it! Now! I've heard stories of the Doctor—we do not want to be here long enough for him to reach us."

"Yes, Sir," he nodded quickly. The Commander left, and the other Shestich glared at Jack.

The white claw smacked painfully into Jack's cheek, sending him to the ground. Jack gasped, grabbing his jaw. He had not really felt pain before, except for his headaches, and he didn't like it. It grabbed him from behind again and hauled him up, yanking him roughly out into a long hallway. It slapped tight handcuffs around his wrist and they dug into his skin.

"Mum?" he called again, still half-expecting Rose to pop out of one of the rooms in front of them. It didn't matter that she wasn't here yet—she would be. His mother would always find him, no matter where he was now.

\------------------------------------------------------------

The Doctor ran into the TARDIS, Rose following closely behind him with tears in her eyes. "Where is he?"

"We are going to find him," the Doctor promised, pulling a grate from the floor and grabbing at the tubing Rose had used before.

"Just tell me," she sobbed. "Where is he? What will they do to him?"

He stood and grabbed her shoulders softly. "They won't hurt him, not now. I am getting us onto that ship, it could take me a bit of time, but I swear we'll get there."

"What will they do to him?" she asked hollowly.

"He… he's so intelligent. They would try to eat him. It doesn't matter though, Rose, because it's not going to happen."

"I'm here," Captain Jack called from the doorway. "Anything I can help with, I'll be right here."

"Thank you," the Doctor nodded, striping open the tubing. He walked up to the TARDIS console, pressing his forehead against the cold metal. "Can you hear me? You can translate any language, wherever your passengers are. That means you form some kind of connection to them. Jack said he could hear you. If you can talk to him, please find him. Tell him we're coming. Tell him not to be scared."

The Doctor didn't hear the reply, but she did answer. Oh, yes, my thief. I will do all I can, but it will not help, in the end…

\---------------------------------------------------------

The Shestich pushed Jack into a small, grey cell. There were benches against the walls, and a small confusing electronic square against the fall wall. The light above him flickered and buzzed; without the use of his hands he quickly lost his footing and fell to the floor. Bars slid down between him and the rest of the ship and locked tightly.

Soft hands pulled him from the floor, and for just a moment he thought his mother had found him. When he looked up it was a woman he didn't recognize. She helped him into a sitting position, wiping a small trickle of blood off of his lip. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"My face hurts," he winced as she examined it. "Are you Toshiko?"

She let go of his face, moving away a bit. "How do you know my name?"

"Jack Harkness is looking for you. He asked my father for help. If my father's looking for you, then you're going to be found, he's good at what he does. This is my job, too, to help everyone. We'll get you back to Earth."

"That won't do any good," she said, shaking a bit. "Earth is no safer than this ship."

"What? Why?"

"They're planning something," she said, dropping to a whisper. "I think it's happening soon."

"What's happening?"

"I don't know the mechanics of it, but they keep saying that the time is coming. The Earth is in danger, nowhere is safe. I'm sorry, there's nothing your father can do."

"You haven't met him," Jack smiled a bit. "If the Earth is in danger, he'll save it. And if I'm in danger, my mother will save me."

They will try… The TARDIS's familiar voice whispered in his head. They will work so hard to reach you, but Sweet Child, they will not get here in time. There are great things in your future, so close, so close. When the time comes you must be willing, save your home, save them all.

Jack frowned. The TARDIS would not lie to him. His parents would not be here in time, whatever that meant. He thought of Gallifrey, that beautiful place he'd seen in his mind, and the fact that he would never get to see it. It had been his father's home, but now he could never go back. Would that happen to the Earth? Would his Mum lose her home, and complete their trio of homeless wanderers?

The small square on the far wall beeped loudly. Jack struggled to his feet and peered at the square. "What is this?"

"I think it's a connection to the security system, it keeps the doors locked. I was able to send a message through it, but I don't have the access codes to open the doors. Oh here, let me get those for you," she said, pulling a pin from her hair and working the handcuffs off of his wrists.

"You, a little human from Earth, you sent a message that far with a cellphone and a tiny little computer? You are good," he grinned at her.

"Aliens," she shivered a bit, "I'm still having a bit of trouble believing this is not all some horrible dream."

"Alien, I've heard that word before. What exactly does that mean?" he asked.

She stared at him as though he'd grown another head. "It means someone who's not from Earth."

"Oh, I'm part alien!" he said happily, wiggling his fingers. "The Doctor's not from Earth, he's just put a lot of work into it. Mum is, though."

Toshiko sighed, rubbing her forehead. "You seem nice enough, whatever you are."

"Jack Tyler," he grinned, shaking her hand.

"Where are you from then, Jack?" she asked. "Where's home for you?"

He got very quiet, looking at his fingernails a moment. He didn't answer her.  
\----------------------------------------------------------

The Doctor was deep under the TARDIS floorboards, digging through the wires and engine pieces.

"Doctor," Captain Jack asked, "are you looking for something?"

"We can't break through the cloaking technology automatically, but if I set it up manually and send us straight at the ship, we should be able to get in."

There was a whining sound and they both paused. Rose hopped up from the pilot's bench on the other side of the room. "It's Jack!" she pulled the screen around the console, showing them a picture of him the TARDIS had pulled up.

"She's giving us a message," the Doctor smiled, patting the floor around him. "He's alive, and he's safe for now."

"How long?" Rose asked for the twelfth time in ten minutes.

"I'm going as fast as I can," he promised.

"Please hurry," she said softly, not looking at the Doctor. "I just hope he's somewhere comfortable. Please don't be scared, Jack."

\----------------------------------------------------

There was a rolling growl outside of their cell. Jack and Toshiko looked up to see a grinning Shestich outside the bars, looking at Jack with narrow eyes.

"Well, don't you smell interesting?" it said snidely.

"I'm not really sure," Jack said sniffing his own hand. "No, not really." He dropped his voice down to a whisper and leaned towards Toshiko. "I have a question."

"Um…Okay," she nodded.

"I'm not entirely sure how this whole saving-the-day thing works yet, so bear with me. The Earth is in danger, right?"

"Right."

"And that is a bad thing, right?"

"Right."

"So, if there's something I can do to stop it, I have to try as hard as I can to do that, right?"

"Right."

"Does that mean it's okay to violent if I need to? I know you shouldn't be as a rule but…"

"Yes, you can be violent if it helps. Why are you asking permission?"

"The Doctor's not going to be happy about this," Jack said hesitantly. He popped to his feet and ran to the door, waving at the guard with a friendly smile. "Hello, there, my name is Jack Tyler."

It glared at him condescendingly. "So?"

"So, I've decided something. I was born on Earth, my Mum was born on Earth, my Gran lives on Earth, and my father's planet was destroyed a long time ago. Therefore, weighing it all out, I'm an Earthling. Earth is my home. As an Earthling, I would like you to all go away and leave my planet alone."

It laughed at him. "What?"

"Oh, sorry, please go away and leave my planet alone. My father says everyone gets a chance. I'm giving you a chance."

"Who are you to give me a chance?" it spat.

Jack's smile disappeared, and his eyes darkened slightly. "I'm Jack Alonso Tyler, son of the Doctor of Gallifrey, and the Bad Wolf of Earth. I am a half Time Lord, half Human, born in the TARDIS. Earth is my home and I will do whatever it takes to protect it, that's what my family does, we help people. But only nice people. And you're not nice."

Jack's hand shot out from the bar, grabbed the Shestich's head, and pulled it roughly against the hard bars. The alien collapsed, falling silently to a heap in front of the cell. Jack reached through the bars and felt at the being's clothes, pulling a small card with barcodes on it out of its pocket.

"So sorry," he said, patting the thing on the cheek, "but I did give you a chance. Was that too hard Toshiko?"

She was staring at him, mouth slightly agape. "Um, no, that was a good thing. A very good thing."

Jack hopped over to the little electronic square, scanning the barcode over it. The bars to their cell slid up, and he took Toshiko's hand. "Allons-y! Let's go save the Earth."

He pulled her out of the cell and they crept silently down the hallway, making as little noise as possible.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------

"Doctor, the screen is saying something!" Rose called.

The Doctor handed Jack what he was working on and jumped out of the floor, rushing to her. A countdown of some kind had popped up on the screen, the seconds ticking by far too quickly.

"No, no, no!" the Doctor yelled, kicking the side of the console in anger. "Ah, one impossible thing at a time, please!"

"What is it?"

"The TARDIS is trying to help, she's copying one of the Shestich transmissions. They've started their countdown to their plan, we have barely ten minutes to stop them, we still don't know exactly what they're doing, they still have Toshiko, they still have Jack, and now I've hurt my foot," he growled, rubbing the side of his face.

The timer ticked away. 10:13, 10:12, 10:11…

\-------------------------------------------------------------

"In here," Toshiko whispered, slipping into a dark room.

Jack followed her, and she fumbled around for a light switch. She stumbled forward, and she found a small pedestal with a round globe at the top. She pressed down on it slightly, and the lights came blaring on. The chamber was wide, as long as four airplane hangars, There were tiles all over the vast floor, each one shimmering a bit in the light.

"Where are we?" Jack asked.

"Oh, I think I've heard them talking about this place—the arrival room. If we want to stop them we should start in here."

"What's an arrival room?" Jack asked.

The globe on the pedestal lit up. Information: Arrival Room number 245. One of many destinations into which the cattle will be transferred.

Toshiko shuddered. "I'm guessing cattle doesn't mean cows."

Information: Cattle specification: 5,927,657,267 Human Beings of Planet Earth. Time until mass teleportation: 5 minutes.

"All of them," Toshiko said softly. "They're going to transfer every human on Earth onto this machine."

Jack pulled a button off of his sleeve and tossed it onto one of the shimmering tiles. There was a shock of electricity, and the button shot off the floor, smoking. "They're electrified," he said. "They're going to teleport and kill every human on Earth and keep them on this ship. A food silo." He turned to the globe. "Can we stop it? Can we stop the countdown?"

Information: Countdown cannot be ended at this time. Sorry for the inconvenience. 4:27 until mass teleportation.

"No!" Jack said, smacking against the globe. "We have to do something."

Toshiko went to the door, but immediately shrank away from it. "There's something out there. I think there's three of them in the hallway. We're trapped."

"No!" Jack whispered harshly, covering his face. This was it, the Earth was over. He sank to the floor, covering his face. Gran was on Earth. Unless she was in the TARDIS, his mother could be there, too. "Please, Doctor," he whispered, "where are you? We need your help."

The TARDIS's words echoed in his ears. They will be too late.

"Maybe your father is on the way, if he's as good as you say he is," Toshiko whispered, pressing a comforting hand on his back.

"No, he's not. He's trying, I'm sure he's trying, but he'll never make it in time," he sobbed a bit. "The Earth is going to be destroyed and it's my fault."

"Your fault?" Toshiko asked, looking at him in confusion. "How is it your fault?"

"I was born," he said sadly. "I distracted him. Without me, the Doctor would have seen a pattern months ago, and he would have stopped the Shestich before they were even in orbit. That's why it's my job to fix this. That's why I want to help. This planet is doomed because of me, and I'm too dumb to fix it!"

"You certainly don't seem dumb to me," she said, "maybe just a bit inexperienced. How old are you, fifteen, sixteen?"

"About a day," he said quietly. "I've only been in the universe a day and I've already destroyed a planet. That woman at the Shadow Proclamation was right about me. Mum and the Doctor should have known better than to let me live. I'm dangerous."

Toshiko blinked, sure she had heard his age wrong. "Well, you don't look dangerous. Except maybe to that guard you knocked out."

"We're all dangerous, that's what she said. Half-Breeds, or at least Half-Time Lords, we are all ticking time bombs because we're too intelligent—" he stopped, looking up suddenly. "But I'm not. I'm protected by a wall in my mind."

"A wall?" Toshiko asked, raising an eyebrow.

"My father lived, and his whole planet died," Jack said, looking at her, "but I think, really, shouldn't it be the other way around? Should you let one person live if it destroys an entire planet in the process?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked, brushing back his hair softly.

"I can do it. I can save the Earth," he took her hand, squeezing it gently. "It was nice to meet you, Toshiko."

He closed his eyes, and with a bit of effort he could see it. There was the wall. It was massive and strained, bowing it bit outwards, trying to fight against the inborn intelligence it hid from him. He took a deep breath, bracing himself. Jack shattered the wall into pieces.

He gasped, grabbing at his forehead in pain, trying not to scream and give away their position. Thoughts raced through his mind, thoughts that were not his own, thoughts from millennia of Time Lord civilization. He saw all of it, time and space, things that must be, things which must not be.

It was magnificent.

It was horrible.

He gasped, his eyes alight with new knowledge, a grin spreading across his pained face. "Not a good day too be a bad guy."


	14. Goodbye

Toshiko backed away. There was something new about this boy she'd been talking to only moments before. His eyes shown as he stared forward, an excited grin across his face.

"Oh, yes," Jack said so quietly that she leaned in to hear him. "Yes!" he shouted, making her jump. He jumped to his feet, cracking his neck to one side. There was a scuffling sound outside as the guards heard him, running down to hallway to capture the escaped prisoners.

"Jack! The guards!" Toshiko gasped.

"Not a problem," he said, waving her off. He flipped around and slid his hand across the door. A large screen appeared in front of him, and his finger flew over, typing madly at holographic buttons. There was a loud clank as the door sealed itself, and guards pounded angrily at the outside of it, growling fiercely.

"Ha!" he laughed, spinning on his heel and running to the small globe on the pedestal.

"What's happening?" Toshiko asked, taking a step back from him.

"Time Lord consciousness," he said, tapping himself on the forehead and talking far too quickly. "Compared to the stuff I just learned to use, this technology is downright primitive. It's like learning how to fly a plane, and then being downgraded to a bike. Slightly different, a bit similar as far as both of them being transportation, but ultimately easier to master once you've learned the harder one. Oh! I made an analogy," he grinned, "isn't that fun? Never done that before. Didn't know what an analogy was before, I think. Didn't know a lot of things before, but hey, that's to be expected with a fairly regular human mind, not that I mind humans, you understand. Mum's a human, I'm part human, and you all seem to be a lovely species. I think I'm rambling. Am I rambling? Brilliant, the Doctor seems to make his best decision when he's rambling. Now tell me, Shestich Mainframe, how long do we have left in that countdown?"

Information: 1:13 until Mass Teleportation

"Ah, it's Christmas!" Jack clapped his hands once. "Love a ticking clock, much more dramatic. Plus they help me sleep, but that's another story." He ran his fingers from under the globe, and then moved them in a tight circle on the top. A screen shot up out of the globe, flickering to life in front of him.

"How did you do that?" Toshiko asked.

"This little globe here is a direct line to the Mainframe Computer, I just moved the screen to this room. I should be able to access everything from here. Sounds like a bit of Deus Ex Machina if you ask me, but I suppose it makes sense. They want to be able to access the countdown from any Mass Teleportation room. Now we get to use that against them."

"The countdown has already started, though," Toshiko said. "It said we can't stop it."

"Don't need to," Jack grinned, working away at the screen. "In fact, I'm glad they've started it. All we have to do is change the template. Right now it's set to human but—" Jack stopped talking and let out a shriek, grabbing his temples and falling to the ground.

"Jack!" Toshiko yelled. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing," he shrugged, pulling himself back up the pedestal. "I'm just burning out my brain. It's a bit painful."

"Your brain is burning?" she asked incredulously.

"Too much mind, not enough grey matter," he said, rubbing his eyes. He finished typing and spun the screen back into the ball. "How much time?" he asked.

Information: Twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight…

"Oh! One last thing!" Jack said quickly, pulling the screen back up and dragging his fingers down the screen. "We better lower the voltage a bit. No genocide, not today."

"What did you do?"

He grinned. "They set the template to human, and broadcast the teleportation field all around Earth's orbit. All I did was change the species that the field is set to abduct. Instead of grabbing humans in Earth's orbit and sending them to this room, and the other's like it, it's set to grab the Shestich."

Information: Three, two, one… Mass Teleportation activated.

There was a blinding light as every Shestich aboard the ship was teleported into the room. As soon as their scaly feet touched down on each tile there was a loud zap, a bolt of electricity just powerful enough to knock them out. They fell by the scores, dropping their guns and other weapons.

"Ha!" Jack laughed. "A thousand Shestich, packaged and ready to be picked up by the Shadow Proclamation." He winced suddenly, grabbing onto the pedestal to keep his balance. His hands were shaking, and his vision was a bit blurry. He looked at the globe again. "Toshiko, can I ask you a favor?"

She was still in awe, looking at the unconscious forms of the aliens all around them. "Yes. What can I get you?"

"May I borrow your phone?" he asked. "I need to make a call."

"Of course," she said, laying her cell phone in his hand.

He slapped his hand against the door and it slid up. "Find the Mainframe. There's no one else on the ship but us. The Shadow proclamation should have no need for this ship or the weapons on it—we'll deliver the prisoners, but nothing else. Set the ship to self-destruct, and set the timer for a full day, just to be safe. It should be pretty easy, especially for someone as sharp as you," he smiled.

She paused at the door, looking back at him. "Will you be okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry about me," he said, smiling grimly. "I think the worst is over."

Toshiko smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you. Just in case no one else remembers to say that—thank you for saving the Earth, even though it hurt."

"Always," he promised. "It's in my blood."

He closed the door after her, pulling up the screen one last time. If Toshiko, working by herself, could send a message, then he would be able to go a step farther. He had to see them one last time.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------

"Come on, come on!" The Doctor said, pounding at the console. Rose hovered over his shoulder, crossing her fingers. There was a loud ding and he let out a whoop of triumph. He stated the engine, and the TARDIS began to lurch into motion.

"Is that it?" Rose asked. "Can we break the cloak and get on the ship?"

"I boosted the engine and set the coordinates—there will be some damage after the trip, but nothing I can't fix later. Let's go get him!" he said happily.

"There's not enough time," Captain Jack said woodenly. "It's hit zero. The countdown has just hit zero."

The Doctor took the screen, looking at the blinking zeros in front of him. He ran to the doors, and popped his head out into the Torchwood Hub. Ianto was sitting at a desk, still sipping his coffee.

"Hi," the Doctor said simply.

"Um, hi," Ianto said a bit awkwardly. "Is there something I can help with?"

"Nah, but could you just tell me; did anything happen just now?"

"Happen? Like what?"

"Uh, no bright lights, no headaches, you didn't pop out of the universe or find yourself teleported to an alien ship orbiting Earth?"

"…No. I don't think anything like that happened. I'm just drinking coffee. Should something like that have happened?"

"Let me get back to you on that," the Doctor said, heading back to the console. "It didn't do anything. The countdown ended, but nothing happened. This doesn't make any sense. The Shestich said they were going to do something big."

"Captain!" Ianto called from outside. "There's something on that screen you set up!"

The three of them ran out of the TARDIS, but Rose saw it first. There, on the screen they'd used to speak to the Shestcih, was the smiling face of Jack Tyler.

"Jack!" she cried, pressing her hands against the screen "Your cheek if bruised! Did they hurt you?"

"It's just a scratch, Mum," he promised.

"What happened up there? Why would they let you call us? Where are the Shestich?" the Doctor asked.

"I stopped them. They tried to teleport all the humans up here to kill them, and I stopped them."

Rose let out a sob her tears rolling over her proud smile. "Of course you did. You're just like your father."

The Doctor was not smiling. "How? How did you do that?"

"They're alive. They're up here, waiting to be picked up. Make sure you send a message to the Shadow Proclamation to pick them up within twelve hours, it'll be safest. The ship is being set to self-destruct. Captain, Toshiko Sato is safe. My parents will pick her up for you."

The Captain sighed in relief. "Thank you."

"Answer my question," the Doctor said quietly. "How did you know how to stop them?"

"Does it matter? He saved us all," Rose asked cheerfully. She saw the Doctor's expression and she smile faded. "What's wrong?"

"He couldn't have stopped them, not as a human," the Doctor said. "Tell me, Jack."

"I…I had to," Jack said quietly. "You would have done it. I pushed over the wall, and I thought of a way to stop them. I would do it again."

"What?" Rose cried. "Put it back up! Jack, put the wall back up!"

"I can't," Jack said. "It's too late. I don't have much time."

"What?" she asked again. "No! Jack, do something! Doctor, do something!"

"He's right," the Doctor said, with a bit of a catch in his voice. Rose looked at him. He was crying. Her Doctor was crying. "It's definitely been over a minute. The wall's been down too long."

"Mum?" Jack asked.

"No," Rose sobbed through her tears, touching the screen, "there has to be a way."

"Mum, I love you," Jack said, one tear leaving his own eyes. "I haven't been able to say that yet, but I want you to know. I had a wonderful time with you. I was born scared and afraid, but you fixed me so quickly. I was so happy, even if it was for a short time. Never feel sorry for me, I was so lucky to have you. You were fantastic."

Rose cried against the screen. "I love you, Jack. Please don't do this, please."

Jack looked away from his mother, and his eyes fell on the Doctor. "Dad."

The Doctor winced. Rubbing his hands over his eyes.

"Dad," Jack said again. "I love you, too. This isn't your fault, it was my choice, okay? I decided to do this. I knew the consequences. You did not force me into anything."

"I forced you to be born," the Doctor spat. "All of this is on me, don't try to make it better."

"What would be the alternative?" Jack asked. "Would you have rather me never been born. Would you rather I never have seen this world, or known any part of this universe? I was lucky to see what I did."

"It's not enough," the Doctor said. "There is so much out there, Jack, so much that you'll never see."

"You tried. You tried your best, and I still turned out okay, I think," Jack smiled. "Saved the earth at a day old, not bad I'd say."

"I love you, Jack," the Doctor said, a catch in his throat.

"Goodbye. Thank you both. Tell Gran I thought about her, too," Jack said moving to turn off the screen. Just as his hand was about to reach the control, he gasped, falling to the floor, out of their eyesight, and letting out a scream.

"Come on!" the Doctor said, pulling Rose away from the screen and into the TARDIS.

"He's dying!" Rose cried, grabbing his arm.

"I know, hold on," the Doctor said, pulling back the lever to send the TARDIS rocketing toward the Shestich ship.

\------------------------------------------------------------

The TARDIS materialized inside of the Shestich ship, and Rose was immediately out the doors, looking wildly up and down the vast hallways. The Doctor was inches behind her, pulling open random doors and looking inside. Toshiko Sato peaked her head out of one of them, and Rose immediately caught her attention.

"Which door?"

"What—"

"Where's my son!?" Rose yelled.

Toshiko pointed at a door down the hall. "Arrival Room 245."

Rose ran to the door, banging on the outside of it. "Jack? Can you hear me?"

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and the door slid open. Jack was lying on the floor in front of a globe on a pedestal. His eyes were closed. He was not moving.

"No," Rose said, dropping to the ground and pulling his head to her knees. The Doctor knelt with her, feeling at Jack's neck and wrists. He scanned his body with the sonic, then sighed setting it back in his jacket.

"I'm sorry, Rose," he whispered, pulling her close to him, pressing his lips against her scalp. "We're too late."

"We can't be," Rose whispered back. "He was alone. He was all alone in this room—he can't just die like that."

"I'm so, so, sorry," he said, petting her hair. "It was fairly quick. He was in a bit of pain when he was talking to us, but after that it would have only taken seconds."

Rose stared at her son, his beautiful eyes closed, and his cheerful face blank. "No," she said simply.

"What?" he asked.

"No!" she screeched. She hopped to her feet, grabbing Jack's shoulders and dragging him from the room.

"Rose? What are you doing? I'm sorry, it's too late," he said following after her.

She ignored him, pulling Jack through the doors and into the TARDIS too quickly for the Doctor to help her. She drug him to the middle of the room, laying him out on the floor. "There you go, Baby," she said brushing her hand through his hair and kissing him on the forehead. "I've brought you home."

They sat in silence for a long time, and then the Doctor laid his hand on her back. "Rose…."

"Just wait," she whispered. She laid on the floor, laying her head on Jack's chest, over his un-beating heart. "Just wait."

The Doctor watched her sadly, trying not to look at Jack's body. His eyes involuntarily flickered over the boy's hand.

Jack's fingertips glowed a dull orange, and the got brighter.

The Doctor grabbed Rose and pulled her back. "Doctor, I want to stay with him—" she started.

"No, stay back, Rose. He's regenerating."


	15. Hello

The TARDIS glowed with a bright orange light. It flickered back and forth now, red and green and blue and white. Rose squeezed the Doctor's hand as the light traveled up Jack's arm, spreading very slowly to his chest, and then outward from there.

"He's changing," Rose said numbly, a flicker of hope in her face. "Like you did, Doctor. This means a new body, right? This means another chance for him."

"I…I just don't know," he said, scratching the side of his head, mouth agape. "This doesn't make any sense. He shouldn't be able to do this. It's impossible."

"Of course it is," Rose laughed, getting as close to Jack's glowing form as she could. "Of course he'd do something impossible. My impossible boy."

The glow covered his entire form, and the boy's body began to change. He got taller, his hair shortened, features twisted and shifted and rearranged. "Oh," the Doctor said so softly that Rose barely heard him, "of course. I hadn't even thought of that. I recognize that energy pattern."

"What?" Rose asked.

"That energy, regeneration energy or whatever it is, it looks off. That's because it's not a Time Lord regeneration. Well, I'm sure my genes had something to do with it, but that wouldn't save him."

"Then what is?"

"Bad Wolf, Rose. He's the son of the Doctor and Bad Wolf. It's you. He's drawing the residual energy from your old form to force his own regeneration."

"See? Half-Human, that's nothing to sneeze at. Ha!" Rose yelled. He gave a strange look. "What I'm not allowed to be excited about things like you are?"

"Rose…" the Doctor started, "Look at him."

Rose looked back to the changing form in front of her. Some features had solidified by now, and the glow began to ebb away from his face. The bones structure, those cheeks, that chin…She recognized it immediately. The glow finally left him, a whole new figure with a whole new face, lying motionless and unconscious on the floor next to his parents. She ran her fingers along his face, that familiar, unmistakable face that she knew so well.

"It's…He can't be. This doesn't make any sense," she said, shaking her head slowly.

There, laying on the TARDIS floor, was the body of Captain Jack Harkness.

They were silent for a long minute, certain their eyes were playing tricks on them. Finally Rose blinked, trying to understand. "Why…Why does he look like Captain Jack?" she asked.

The Doctor scanned him with the Sonic Screwdriver carefully. "His vitals read as human. Just human, barely a trace of Time Lord left. He must have burned it out of his mind. Everything is gone up there. No memories, no personality, just empty space. A brand new body and brain with the same soul still attached to it. Incredible."

"But why does he look like Captain Jack Harkness?" Rose asked again, getting more agitated.

"Rose," he said, holding her shoulders. "I should have seen this sooner, I'm sorry. This is going to sound very confusing to you, I'm having trouble wrapping my own mind around it."

"Just tell me," she begged.

"Rose… There is no Captain Jack Harkness. There never was."

"There is," she said, shaking her head. "We saw him five minutes ago, Doctor."

"We saw a man five minutes ago, who said he was Jack Harkness, who believed he was because his memories told him he was. We met him in London in the middle of the blitz, you remember that?"

"Of course I remember that," she said rolling her eyes. "He had just left the Time Agency. He was trying to con them, they were searching all over time for him."

"But that doesn't make any sense. I thought it back then, too, but I didn't think much about it. If the Time Agency wants to find someone, it's not that hard. Plus, he's not exactly in hiding right now, he's opening up a Torchwood base in the middle of Cardiff."

"What are you saying? Why does our Jack look like that?"

"There's only one Jack, Rose. The man lying there on the floor, he is our son, and he is also the man we call Jack Harkness. It's always been him. This whole time, from when we met him in London, when we went to the Game Station, just today when he helped me in the TARDIS –oh! He helped me in the TARDIS, how could I not have noticed that? There's no way he would understand the mechanics of a TARDIS if he was entirely human! How could I not see this? A perception filter maybe…Yes! That makes perfect sense, I would definitely put a perception filter around him to keep him safe. That's why I never noticed what he was, that's why I've never sensed anything Gallifreyan about him; I was tricking myself. You, Rose," he smiled, "do you realize this means you've saved our son's life twice? Once just now, with your genes, and the other on the Game Station when the Dalek shoots him."

Rose was still staring at Jack on the floor, barely looking at the Doctor. "Let's say you're right," she said. "Let's say Jack Harkness was our Jack all along. Then where did his false memories come from? He had a whole life story—he told it to us, remember? The Boe-Shane Peninsula, his Mother, the Time Agency, he even mentioned his name wasn't even Jack Harkness. He had a past."

"All lies," the Doctor said, laying his hand over Jack's forehead. "All of it was just a lie that he believed was true. And I'm the one who has to put it in there. I have to give him a fake past, based on the things he has told us."

"But why?" she cried, pulling his hand away from their son. "Why give him a fake memory? Let's just wake him up and take him with us."

"Captain Jack Harkness met us in London in the forties, Rose. He has to meet us there. It's an established chain of events, a time-locked point. He was part of the reason I fell in love with you—I suddenly realized that you might be interested in other people and it almost broke my hearts. That led directly to me admitting I loved you, and then to us conceiving Jack in the first place. He has to ensure his own birth. And that's not the only reason. There are still traces of Time Lord in there, but they're faint. He doesn't remember us right now, we're strangers to him. If we just told him who we were it would be like starting over from his birth, and he would still be in danger of that consciousness reawakening and burning out his mind. It's an absolute miracle that he survived this time, he would not regenerate again. We already know he lives, we've just seen him a few minutes ago. We could go see Captain Jack, here in the 21st century, anytime we like. You can check up on him, as long as we don't tell him who he really is."

Rose was crying again, stroking the boy's face. "Centuries. Captain Jack said he waited for us from the eighteen hundreds until today. If we do this, our son is going to wait for us for such a long time. I didn't even ask how he was still alive, I was so busy worrying."

"He can do it, we already know he lives through it. He can do amazing things. When you save him on the Game Station, Rose, Jack Harkness becomes immortal. Our son will never ever die, because you save him. But in order for you to save him, you have to let me rewrite his mind, and send him back to the forties. He won't be alone long, I'll give him just enough time to find the Chula Warship and the Chula Ambulance, and then the younger versions of you and me will show up to help him."

Rose kissed her son's forehead. "Okay. Okay, do it. Give him the memories."

The Doctor laid his hand on his son's forehead, closing his eyes and focusing very hard as he put everything he knew about Captain Jack Harkness into his son's mind. "I'm not giving him everything," he mentioned, partially to himself. "I'm keeping two years away from him. He'll think the Time Agency took those yeas—that's what motivates him to con us in the first place. I'm putting up a low level perception filter too, that will stop the younger me from realizing the signs of Time Lord consciousness in him." The Doctor pulled a little electronic box from his pocket and strapped it to Jack's wrist. "Vortex Manipulator," he said, "I swiped it from Captain Jack's desk earlier, I didn't want him to be able to pop around time, but it was already broken." He used the Sonic Screwdriver on the device. "That should get it working."

"What now?" she asked, trying to sound braver than she was.

\-----------------------------------------------------------

The Doctor and Rose laid Jack down gently on a bed in the hotel room they'd rented for him in London in 1943. They paid for a full month, just in case he needed it. They put money from the time period into his pocket, enough to last until he met the younger versions of themselves. He was still wrapped in that military coat he'd picked from the wardrobe, and looking at it now Rose could see that it was very similar to the one she'd seen the Captain in before.

Rose squeezed his hand, pulling the covers up and tucking in her child one last time. "This isn't goodbye, Sweetheart. You'll see me again in just a little while, but I won't recognize you. We get to dance in front of Big Ben, I know you like music. We'll take you on the TARDIS, you'll help us fight a Slitheen, and eventually you'll find yourself fighting a Dalek. Don't worry, though. Mum will save you. It will be a while before you see me after that, but don't worry. I'll always come back. I love you, Jack," she said with a sob, trying to hold back her tears.

She pressed her face against the Doctor's chest and he held her for a moment, rubbing her back. "Can I have a moment?" he asked her.

"Yeah," she nodded, slipping away into the TARDIS, hiding her face from him. He was alone with Jack.

The Doctor knelt by the bed, placing one hand on Jack's forehead again. "Just one thing," he whispered. "Jack Harkness is not your real name, and you'll always know it's not your real name. Your name is Jack A. Tyler, and Harkness is just an alias you took from a fallen soldier around this time. You won't ever tell anyone what your name really is, it's a secret, but I want you to know it." He took the watch from his pocket and slipped it into Jack's coat. "You keep that, Son. Just in case you need to get to sleep. Be safe. I love you."

He took one last look behind him, then walked into the TARDIS, closing the door. Jack lay there alone, with the little blue box in the corner of the room. If he had been awake, he would have heard a woman go to shreds inside the box, crying on the shoulder of the alien she loved, knowing her son was about to start on a long, rocky path, without her there to protect him. The sound of the TARDIS engine drowned her out, and the wind from the vanishing box blew across his silent face.  
\---------------------------------------------------

The man woke with a start. He had been having such a strange dream. There was a wind in his hotel room, and a blonde angel kissing him goodbye. He had seen some strange things in his life at the Time Agency, but something about the gravity of this dream weighed on him. He looked down at his clothes.

"What? Oh, come on, I slept in my clothes again? How drunk was I last night?" he asked himself, hopping out of the bed and rushing to his mirror. He stared at his own reflection, feeling at his jaw. He had seen his face a thousand times before, of course, but something seemed new about it. He couldn't quite place his finger on it. He didn't feel drunk, or even hung-over, but the strange feeling would not go away.

He felt something heavy against his leg, and pulled the object from his pocket. It was a pocket watch, an old one. "That's my pocket watch," he told himself. "I've had it forever."

Then where did you get it? Something deep inside him asked.

"My father gave it to me," he answered quickly to no one. "Years ago, when I was just a kid on the Boe-Shang Peninsula. Yeah, I remember that. Of course I do."

You don't. It insisted.

"No, I don't remember," he said finally. "I bet it was in the two years the Time Agency took from me. I must have gotten it then."

Captain Jack Harkness sat back down on his bed, pulling off his outer clothes to get more comfortable. Something wet fell on the knee of his trousers. He felt his face. There were tears there, but he did not know why. He thought of his mother, someone he had not seen in years, and the tears fell harder. She had been a wonderful woman, and he knew he would not be as sharp as he was today without her.

However, as hard as he tried, he could not remember what she looked like.

By morning, he had forgotten the dream.


	16. The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, warning! I misnumbered the chapters, this is the last chapter of this story. Thank you for everyone who hung in this far, I wrote this story a long time ago but I love Jack and I love to revisit it. :)

"Right now," Rose said, pulling her face away from the Doctor's shoulder.

"What?" he asked.

"You said we could see him anytime we wanted, I want to see him right now."

"We…we've only just left him—" he stuttered a bit.

She shot him a look.

"Not that it matters!" he said quickly. "One trip to Torchwood coming up. We'll swing by the Shestich ship to pick up his little genius, it'll give us a reason to drop by." He said, setting the coordinates.

"Can I tell him?" she asked, sitting on the floor and leaning back against the console. "I mean, he's completed the whole paradox thing by now. He already met us, and I've given birth to him, so now we could tell him, right?"

He sighed and looked back at her. "Even now, Rose, after all these years… there's no telling how his mind will react. It might do nothing, or it might resurface all of his Time Lord consciousness. I know he has come back to life before but…something like that is just too much."

She nodded, wiping her face so that no one would be able to tell she'd been crying. "I expected as much. I just needed to be sure. I'll keep my mouth shut. I can do that. To keep my Jack safe, I can do that."

"I'll send the Shadow Proclamation a message. You know…I'm sure he had the chance to kill every one of those Shestich. But he didn't. Our son saved everyone, in the end, good or bad."

"Not the end," she reminded him. "It was only his beginning. It's okay to be proud of him, you know."

The Doctor nodded, smiling back at her and looping his fingers through hers.

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The familiar screech of the TARDIS echoed through Torchwood Hub, and Jack and Ianto jumped to their feet. Owen Harper peeked his head curiously out of the examination room he was setting up. He was still a bit weirded-out by all of this, not to mention still reeling from Katie's death, and he preferred to ignore most things going on around him.

The doors swung open and a weak-looking Toshiko Sato stepped out, staring at the small doorframe. "It's really true. It's bigger on the inside," she marveled for the tenth time.

"Tosh!" Jack laughed, swinging her up into a big hug. "We thought we'd lost you already."

"Not getting rid of me so easily," she said with a tired smile. "There's too many interesting things around here."

"Good to see you safe," Ianto smiled, giving her an awkward hug.

Jack crossed his arms, watching the both of them, when two small arms wrapped around him from behind, pulling him into another hug. He spun around to see Rose Tyler right behind him, not letting go of his torso. He knew what it looked like when a woman had been crying, but he also knew how to tell if they were hiding that fact. If Rose didn't want him to know, he'd pretend he didn't.

"Well, I've always got a hug for you," he beamed, giving her a tight squeeze. "If you don't mind that is, Doctor?" he asked as the other man came through and closed the doors behind him.

The Doctor stared at him for a moment. "Mind?... Oh! Right, no, no problem. Hugs are wonderful." He hugged Rose, hugged Toshiko, hugged a very confused Ianto, and then grabbed Jack, lingering just a moment too long as he hugged the Captain. "Everyone can use one of those every couple days."

"Uh, yeah," Jack nodded a bit suspiciously, with a raised eyebrow. "We'll just go ahead and make that the Torchwood Motto. Friday will be Hug-a-weevil day. Ianto, put that in the company memo."

"Sure, Sir," Ianto smiled, sneaking a look at him.

"Torchwood, right," Rose said, looking over their operation in a way she had not before. "It's quite a little set up you have here. It's really impressive, you're doing a great job."

"We're trying," he nodded.

"Perhaps…" the Doctor started. He struggled to find the right words not. "Maybe you've been working too hard, Jack. I mean all this," he said, gesturing around him, "must be very grueling. How much sleep are you getting? Are you eating alright? Or—well, sorry, probably none of my business. What I'm saying is, I do have time machine, and you seem to be in need of some time. You could come with us, if you like, just for a day or so. Have some fun, sleep as long as you like, catch up with a couple of old friends, and I can drop you off right back here with only a minute used up."

"Oh," Jack said, genuinely surprised. "I didn't think you'd want me on the TARDIS. You said I made you uncomfortable."

"I got over it. Besides, I owe you something, I did strand you here for years, right? Let me apologize. Besides, you need the break—you look pale. Does anyone else think he looks pale?"

"I think he looks fine—" Ianto started but quickly stopped when Rose discreetly stomped on his foot. "Oh! Yeah, definitely pale. You go for a few minutes, Sir, we'll just work on our own for a bit. We won't touch anything important until you get back."

Jack shrugged. "Okay. Free TARDIS vacation. Let's go."

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"The Olympics?" Jack asked with a smile as they stepped out of their carefully hidden box into a crowded hallway. "In Rio. Not complaining or anything, Doc, but why here?"

"Rose and I have been meaning to come here for days," he shrugged. "The two of you head down that hall there, take the psychic paper and get a good seat. We should be just in time for the opening ceremony. I brought snacks, I'll sneak them in. These pockets have to be good for something, eh?" he smiled, ushering them down the hall and slipping back into the TARDIS.

Jack walked with Rose down the hall, lowering his voice so the crowd around them would not hear. "Rose, are you okay?"

"Yeah," she smiled. "Why wouldn't I be?"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Your son. Jack. Last time I checked he was in terrible danger, calling you to say goodbye. The two of you left to go see him, and then you came back without a word about him. It looks… it looks like you've been crying, Rose."

"Oh, he's okay," she said, patting him on the arm and thinking as quickly as she could. "Sorry, we didn't mention, we saved him in time. He's with my mother on Earth, resting up a bit."

He sighed in relief, setting an arm around her shoulder. "I'm glad. You two deserve a miracle once in a while."

"So," she said, swinging her arms a bit, trying not to look him in the eye, "Ianto seems nice."

He stared at her. "I know."

"Are you two…together?" she asked.

He paused. "No immediate plans. I think he mentioned having a girlfriend."

"Oh. Toshiko was nice, too, very smart—"

"Since when are you so interested in my love life?"

"I'm not," she said quickly, pulling him to a stop. "It's just… you know the Doctor and I are happy, I just want to be sure you're happy, too. You're our friend."

"I'm okay, Rose—"

"No," she cut him off. "Really. Tell me how you are. Please, I want to know."

He set a hand on her shoulder. "I'm…making do, Rose. I don't know what you want to hear. I'm building my own team…but my last team is dead. My boss had a breakdown, but he left his operation to me."

"You're the only one left? Do you have any friends, someone not connected to Torchwood?"

"Not really," he shrugged, looking a bit uncomfortable.

"You're lonely," she asked, a slight quiver in her voice. "You've been alone for a century?"

"No," he said quickly. "I've met people, along the way. I've had some friends, other really good friends, some very good friends if you know what I mean. I fell in love a few times. I just don't seem to be able to hold on to some of the best ones. We stay together for a while, but eventually I have to face the fact that I don't age, or at least that I age very slowly. Sometimes I only get to be close to someone for a few years, but it's worth it, while it lasts. Everyone needs someone to talk to."

"Companions," she said softly. "You collect companions?"

He smiled. "Sort of. I guess I do. Maybe the Doctor rubbed off on me a bit." He watched her strange expression, not a clue in the world why she was staring at him like that. Finally he shrugged it off, figuring he must be imagining things. "I'll let you in on a little secret," he whispered.

"What?"

"To be honest, I have a family. I just never see them, we think it's better that way. I had a daughter."

Rose's mouth dropped open. "No! I'm a… I'm only twenty!" she muttered under her breath.

"Then she had a son, Steven. I look a little young to be a grandfather, right?"

"You're telling me," she said, pressing a hand worriedly to the side of her face.

"Well, we better get going," he said, reaching into his pocket. Psychic paper is only going to do so much for us if every seat is taken before we get down there." He pulled an old beat-up pocket watch from his coat, checking the time.

What happened next was impossible for Jack to explain. One minute he was looking at Rose, and the next he saw a flash in front of his eyes. Toshiko's face. A rose in a vase. An old record player. He gasped, grabbing his eyes, wincing against the sharp sting.

"Jack?" Rose asked, grabbing his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he said, trying to shake it off. "Just a headache. I—oh!" he gasped, bending over a bit and grabbing Rose's arm for support.

"Doctor!" Rose screamed, her voice much louder than you'd expect it to be in such a busy place. She searched for him, but they were still alone in this crowd. Perhaps if Jack had collapsed, or screamed, or called for help, someone in the massive crowd would have stopped, but they were practically invisible here. Rose grabbed at his face, and for just half a second she could have sworn his eyes were a little brown. Her plans changed instantly.

"Sorry," he said with a wince. "I don't know what that was about."

It didn't matter. She had ahold of his arm, pulling him back through the crowd toward the TARDIS. "We'll fix this. We have to."

"I'm okay," he insisted.

She ignored him, pushing a few people out of the way. The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS just as they reached it, smiling and holding up a small white bag. "I found snacks, took a bit of digging, but I still had some in my old coat. Would either of you like a—"

"We need to talk," Rose said quickly, ushering him back into the TARDIS and pulling Jack in with her.

"No, Rose," the Doctor said dropping his voice and glancing at the Captain, "I don't think we do."

"Well then, for once, you're wrong," she snapped a bit.

Jack shifted uncomfortably. "If you two need to have a fight I could wait outside."

"No," Rose said quickly. "The three of us have to talk about something."

"No, we don't," the Doctor said again.

"I'll just… walk a bit," Jack said opening the door.

"No, stay in the TARDIS where we can find you," Rose said. "In case you get another…headache."

He shrugged and walked past them, heading into the hallways.

The Doctor looked at her, lowering his voice. "Headache? He had a headache?"

"The way he looked at me," she whispered. "I swear… he knows."

"No, he doesn't. He's not exactly subtle, he would have told us if he knew."

"Maybe it isn't a conscious knowledge, but there is something in there. The memories are there. He met himself today, and that has to have triggered something. What if they resurface?" She asked, a small, sad smile.

"That's what we're trying to prevent, did you forget? What is all this about talking to him?"

"If he's going to remember anyway we should just tell him. That way we'll be with him and we can help him."

"Help him what? Burn? You want to see that happen? I thought we made this decision already."

"This changes things. He's remembering on his own. He'll figure it out on his own, and we might not be there when he does."

The Doctor sighed, running his hands through his hair. "We…we just can't, Rose. It's so dangerous. Would you shorten his time to make yourself feel better?"

She covered her face. He stared at her moment, and then sighed, pulling close to him. She sobbed once, one hand curling on his shirt. "I don't know what to do. He's my son and I don't know how to help him."

Above them, a voice answered, one neither of them could hear. Fine. I'll do it for you.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Okay, so he was lost.

Jack walked down the halls of the TARDIS, having absolutely no idea which way he was going. The halls seemed to have decided to change since he'd been on it last. He thought he was heading towards the swimming pool, but nothing this way looked familiar. He glanced back over his shoulders, wondering if he should just go back and see if the happy couple were done arguing. He had no idea what had set them off in the first place, so hopefully it was something that could be resolved fairly quickly.

Lost? A sweet voice asked him.

"That was a quick spat," he smiled, turning to face Rose.

She wasn't there.

"Who said that?" he asked.

You know me, it whispered. You returned to me. I waited, I am so patient. I've been dealing with your father for 700 years, I have to be patient.

Jack pulled a gun from under his jacket. "I said who's there? How did you get onto the TARDIS?"

There was a small zap from the floor and Jack gasped, dropping his gun.

No weapons, it chastised. You were told not to use weapons, you must learn to listen.

"Not gonna' happen," he said, grabbing his gun from the floor. "Show yourself."

You see me. Do you want to see more?

"Yes," he said cautiously.

I brought you here. To the left, Child. The door.

Jack looked to his left. There was a solid door in front of him, a bright light shining from inside it. With a slow swing the door opened by itself. Jack held tightly to his weapon, holding it in front of him as he tiptoed inside.

It was just a room. The wallpaper was a bright, burnt orange. There was a big, comfy looking bed against the wall, and books all along the wall. "Hello?" Jack called.

Music started playing.

Whatever you do

I'll do it too

He looked over at the corner and saw an old record player spinning.

Show me everything

Tell me how

Jack frowned. He gasped, the pain in his head hitting him again. Flashes danced in front of his eyes. Rose in front of him, smiling. An older blonde woman. Fear, followed by comfort. These weren't his memories, this didn't make any sense. Rose's mother, that's who the blonde woman was. He knew it, but he didn't know how.

It all means something

And yet nothing to me

Scribbles on the wall over the bed caught his eyes. They were circles and lines, he recognized them from the console room. The TARDIS didn't translate Gallifreyan. He approached the wall slowly, his gasping as the pain grew more intense. He laid his hand against the gibberish.

Not gibberish. There was no reason he should be able to read it, but something in his brain simply told him what it meant. He'd never read Gallifreyan before, but this was absolutely clear.

"Doctor," he whispered, staring at the first symbol. He saw the man in his mind's eye. He had been in this room before. He had laid in this bed, and the Doctor was there. The watch in his pocket bumped against his leg.

He placed his hand over the second symbol. "Rose," he said. A warm hug. Safety, happiness, contentment, absolute amazement at someone so wonderful. Pure, comforting love. Tears.

He looked at the third. With a gasp, the dam broke. Memories came pouring through. His head pounded in time with his heart. "Jack," he whispered. Then he screamed.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000

They heard him in the console room. Rose ran faster than the Doctor, running as fast as she could through the halls. "Jack!" she screamed.

Run if you want, the TARDIS whispered inaudibly. It doesn't matter, Rose Tyler. You've already saved him.

She saw a door open in the hallway and bolted to it. Jack was on the floor, gasping yelling, shaking. "Jack," she cried, dropping to her knees and pulling him to her as the Doctor caught up to her. "Are you okay?"

He looked up at her as if seeing her for the first time. There was a wildness to his face, and he grew quiet, becoming far too still. "Mum?" he whispered.

"Yes," she said, holding his cheek. "I'm here. I'm right here, Jack."

He stared at her and said nothing. His eyes were glassy, and his face lost all expression. His breathing stopped.

"No. Jack? No!" she screeched, shaking his lifeless form.

The Doctor wrapped his arms around them both. Kissing Rose on the head. "I'm sorry."

They sat in silence, but Rose has a determined look on her face. "One more miracle," she whispered, shaking Jack. "Come on, one more, for us."

Jack gasped.

The Doctor jumped, startled, but Rose didn't budge. "That's it, you can do it."

His eyes opened and he moaned, wincing and shaking, rubbing at his face with his hands.

"Jack?" the Doctor asked, staring at him. "You're alive. You were dead."

"Yeah," Jack said, catching his breath. "I have a tendency to do that."

"I didn't think…" the Doctor said. "With Time Lord thoughts in your head, you shouldn't be able to come back."

"Well," Jack shrugged weakly, "shocking people runs in my family."

Rose brushed his hair back, making it stick up just a bit. "Your family?" she asked gently.

"I missed you, Mum," Jack said catching her hand with his.

Rose sobbed, burying her face in his shoulder.

The Doctor smiled at the two of them as the fact settled over him. An outcome unfolded in front of his face which he had never expected. The impossible. A tear ran down his face.

"What's wrong, Doctor?" Jack asked him.

"You lived," the Doctor said simply. "I screwed up in every way possible, and you survived anyway. My son lived."

"Of course," Rose smiled smugly, turning to face him with a grin. "He's my son. He can do anything."

The Doctor let out a chuckle, helping Rose to her feet.

"What?"

He gestured to Jack's face. "How are we going to explain this to your grandmother?"

Jack laughed, pulling the Doctor into a hug. "I missed you, too, Dad. Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," he said.

"Can we go watch the Olympics now, Doc? I have been waiting for a century."

"Yeah," the Doctor said, not letting him go for a long moment. "No more waiting. Never again. You do what you want in this universe. Build your team. Live your life. But we'll be here. One call, that's all it will take."

The TARDIS watched the little family step back out into the world together. They were strange, but they were wonderful. It hummed happily to itself, because it knew something wonderful. The Doctor was right.

The End (For now)


End file.
